Special Counsel Jack Smith accused of deliberately impeding Trump's presidential campaign

By lauraharris // 2023-08-29

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The defense attorneys representing former President Donald Trump have accused U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith of deliberately impeding their client's ability to campaign for the 2024 presidential elections and to properly defend himself in court. Trump is facing charges against alleged mishandling of classified documents in a federal court in Florida, with the trial set to commence on May 20, 2024. Additionally, charges are pending against Trump in a federal court in Washington, D.C., pertaining to alleged interference with the 2020 presidential election. Smith has proposed starting this trial on January 2, 2024. In a letter addressed to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon of the Southern District of Florida, the defense attorneys wrote: "The special counsel’s conduct appears to be intentionally motivated to prevent President Trump from meaningfully preparing for either trial and to simultaneously prevent him from running a campaign for president of the United States." The preparation for both trials includes discovery, pre-trial motions and jury selection, all of which are expected to overlap. An evidentiary hearing for the Florida case is scheduled for December 11, 2023, while jury selection for the Washington case is also proposed for December. Furthermore, the attorneys of Trump have highlighted the demanding timeline. Apart from the two pending trials, a six-week trial is scheduled to begin in New York in October, addressing allegations of falsification of business documents related to hush payments. All this is happening while Trump is also engaged in a potential presidential campaign. Attorney Curt Levey, president of the Committee for Justice, has questioned the rush behind the schedule. "They're less concerned with doing this in a thorough way to insulate it from successful appeal, than they are in making sure that the trials, and in their mind, hopefully the convictions, happen before the election."

Trump pads lead in GOP primary polls amid indictments

Trump said these indictments are giving him an advantage in the 2024 presidential elections. (Related: Political network set up by Koch brothers raises more than $70M to stop Trump from winning GOP presidential nomination.) According to an aggregation of the recent major national GOP primary polls by FiveThirtyEight, Trump is currently enjoying an average support of 51.6 percent, giving him a substantial lead of 36.8 percentage points against his closest competitor, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. His average support in national polls has steadily increased from around 43 percent at the beginning of the year to the current 51.6 percent. This prompted him to announce that he will not be joining any GOP presidential primary debates. But he'll be watching them closely. "Let them debate so I can see who I MIGHT consider for Vice President!" Trump posted on Truth Social. During the a recent debate, GOP presidential candidates were asked whether they would endorse Trump if he secured the nomination but was simultaneously convicted of any of the 91 felonies alleged by prosecutors. Of the eight candidates present, only Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie explicitly stated they would not support Trump. Hutchinson explained his stance by claiming that Trump was "morally disqualified from being president" again, while Christie emphasized the importance of ceasing to normalize what he deemed inappropriate conduct from the former president. Fascism.news has more stories about attempts to prevent Trump's reelection. Watch this news report about the Koch brothers' efforts to prevent Trump from securing the GOP presidential nomination back in 2020. This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.

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Trump pads lead in GOP primary polls amid indictments

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