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Sen. Grassley: Jack Smith withheld impeachment records from Trump’s defense
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The following is from Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
In response to questioning from Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) this morning, Deputy Attorney General nominee Todd Blanche confirmed that Special Counsel Jack Smith withheld relevant impeachment records from Trump’s defense team during one of his criminal cases. This includes records recently released by Grassley, proving that the Smith elector case was initiated by an anti-Trump FBI agent acting in violation of FBI protocol.
Withholding impeachment evidence prevents a defendant from raising a complete defense and fully questioning witnesses.
Chairman Grassley issued the following statement:
“Jack Smith and his merry band of DOJ partisans weaponized the justice system to put President Trump and his defense team at an unfair disadvantage. It’s no surprise Smith didn’t play by the rules. After all, Smith’s cases against Trump were never about fairness – they were always about vengeance and aimed at destroying a political opponent. The American people defeated Smith’s lawfare when they elected Donald Trump on November 5. Moving forward, the Department of Justice will be far better off with Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche at its helm, who will follow the law and hold bad actors accountable.”
Watch video of Grassley’s exchange with Blanche here. A transcript is below.
GRASSLEY: Mr. Blanche, Senator Johnson and I recently released FBI emails and other records to the public regarding Arctic Frost, the FBI’s case against Trump. Those records show that anti-Trump FBI agent Timothy Thibault drafted, opened, and advanced the information that became the basis of Jack Smith’s elector case. The records further show this was done in violation of FBI rules.
The government is supposed to produce impeachment evidence to defense counsel.
Did the government produce emails and records between Thibault and his team of agents to defense counsel, including the ones I recently made public?
BLANCHE: No, Senator.
GRASSLEY: You represented President Trump against both of Jack Smith’s lawfare cases. During the course of those cases, defense counsel raised issues involving DOJ and prosecutorial misconduct. Beyond what is already public, are you able to share additional examples of Justice Department misconduct?
BLANCHE: Thank you, Chairman. Yes, for sure. Two things come to mind.
The first—much of this is public if you look closely, but it was never widely reported—is that when President Trump was indicted in Florida, the prosecutors initially asked the court to prevent Trump from seeing the evidence against him.
The former President of the United States was nearly denied access to the very documents he was charged over—something even accused terrorists often get to see.
Secondly, when Trump was indicted in D.C., Smith’s prosecutors pushed for a December 11 trial date, despite knowing they had over 11 terabytes of discovery to produce. They also knew:
- Trump had another trial scheduled in New York at the same time.
- Judge Cannon had already scheduled an evidentiary hearing for the same date in Florida.
Despite this, DOJ stood by and let it happen. No one stepped in to say, “That’s not how we do things at the Department of Justice.” They just let Jack Smith do it.
There are other examples. When the Supreme Court ruled on the immunity issue on July 1, Jack Smith immediately went back to the grand jury and re-filed charges with minimal changes. DOJ let it happen.
And in September, they filed an unprecedented 170+ page brief a month and a half before the election, with no basis in federal rules. DOJ allowed it.
These were clear miscarriages of justice.
The post Sen. Grassley: Jack Smith withheld impeachment records from Trump’s defense appeared first on Sharyl Attkisson.
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