Jack Smith widens Trump probe despite slap from judge

FPI / August 8, 2023

Special prosecutor Jack Smith has expanded his Jan. 6 investigation into former President Donald Trump by calling in mid-level and junior Trump campaign and White House staffers to testify in the coming weeks, reports say.

"Why are they doing this? Because it hurts the staffers financially," Jack Posobiec of Human Events noted in a Telegram post. "The average D.C. attorney to handle pre-indictment grand jury testimony costs between $20-50k. That’s more than half of what most campaign staff would have made during their entire time on the campaign."

The Biden Department of Justice's goal, Posobiec added, "is clear: chilling of the right to free speech, reducing the right of free assembly, and to scare away GOP staff from future campaigns and administrations. This is the long battle and they’re fighting to win."

Trump wrote in a Truth Social post: "THERE IS NO WAY I CAN GET A FAIR TRIAL WITH THE JUDGE 'ASSIGNED' TO THE RIDICULOUS FREEDOM OF SPEECH/FAIR ELECTIONS CASE. EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS, AND SO DOES SHE! WE WILL BE IMMEDIATELY ASKING FOR RECUSAL OF THIS JUDGE ON VERY POWERFUL GROUNDS, AND LIKEWISE FOR VENUE CHANGE, OUT OF D.C."

As Smith ramped up his pursuit of Trump in the D.C. case, a federal judge dealt several blows his prosecution of Trump for his alleged mishandling of classified documents stored at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.

U.S. Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, denied the DOJ's request to keep fillings sealed in the case and she removed two from the record. Cannon also asked for prosecutors to provide additional information about the continuing use of an out-of-state jury in the case.

Cannon wrote in her brief that the DOJ's arguments "fail to satisfy the burden of establishing a sufficient legal or factual basis to warrant sealing."

Meanwhile, on Friday, Trump called on the Supreme Court to "intercede" in what he says is his political opposition's 2024 election "interference."

"My political opponent has hit me with a barrage of weak lawsuits, including D.A., A.G., and others, which require massive amounts of my time & money to adjudicate," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

"Resources that would have gone into Ads and Rallies, will now have to be spent fighting these Radical Left Thugs in numerous courts throughout the Country," Trump wrote. "I am leading in all Polls, including against Crooked Joe, but this is not a level playing field. It is Election Interference, & the Supreme Court must intercede."

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