Former President Donald Trump repeatedly insulted Special Counsel Jack Smith during his angry speech at Mar-a-Lago hours after he was arrested and charged in New York — on a day when Smith was given access to powerful testimony in his Jan. 6 investigation .
Smith, who also leads an investigation into Trump’s attempted election overthrow and classified documents discovered at Mar-a-Lago, has made rapid progress on both fronts and won a ruling from a court panel appeal that former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and others must appear to testify before a grand jury.
The ongoing probes were evident in Trump’s mind during the 25-minute speech — where DA Alvin Bragg’s 34-member jury’s new indictment of falsifying business records related to the Stormy Daniels payout is just one of the targets was from Trump’s anger.
“This crazy special prosecutor named Jack Smith,” is how the former president referred to the man who tapped Attorney General Merrick Garland to lead the investigation. the race for the White House.
“That crazy special prosecutor named Jack Smith. I wonder what it was prior to a change? Whoever others of his ilk say he is worse than them is only looking at Trump,” Trump said.
Former President Donald Trump tore up Special Counsel Jack Smith on a day of an unfavorable Court of Appeal ruling. He also ripped Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan, Manhattan DA Alvin Brag, Hunter Biden, the Biden family, the FBI, the Justice Department and Big Tech
Trump accused the special counsel of “threatening people” — accusing him of using pinch tactics on witnesses by dangling relief.
“We have this Jack Smith nut who threatens people every day through his agents. They threaten jail time. But talk about Trump and you go free. This is where we are as a nation. Who would have thought? They can’t beat us at the ballot box, so they’re trying to get us through the law. That’s the country we live in.’
Trump denied wrongdoing and denied having a sexual relationship with the porn star.
Trump’s allegations of pressure from Smith came on a day when a three-judge panel in the DC Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that Meadows and other top associates subpoenaed must testify.
Trump attacked Special Counsel Jack Smith as ‘crazy’
Trump suggested he might have won the election if Hunter Biden’s ‘laptop from hell’ came out sooner, going after the FBI and big tech
Trump attacked Judge Juan Merchan hours after being issued a warning about “words or conduct that could jeopardize the rule of law as it applies to these proceedings in this courtroom.”
Trump railed against investigators in a speech at his private club Mar-a-Lago
A court sketch of Donald Trump in court in NYC on April 4
Meadows provided critical advice to Trump and traveled to Georgia on his behalf amid Trump’s attempts to overturn the election. Meadows was present for Trump’s infamous phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffesnperger, where Trump told him, “I just want to find 11,780 votes” — one more than he needed to win the state.
He also went after “the illegal and unconstitutional attack on Mar a Lago here” – referring to the FBI’s search for classified materials under a subpoena.
Trump went after Smith after going after Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the Stormy Daniels case, and previously oversaw a Trump Organization case that had long had Trump Org. CFO Allen Weisselberg sentenced to five months in prison after pleading guilty to tax fraud.
“Recently we had another court case and the same judge told the fine man who worked for me for many, many years that if you plead guilty you will be in jail for 90 days. But if you don’t, if we go through a trial and you’re found guilty, you’re gone for 10 years and maybe more.
Trump also attacked Mercan as a “Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife and a family whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris,” in an attack that drew groans from a packed crowd of supporters and Mar-a-Lago members.
Trump also spent time chasing Hunter Biden and his infamous laptop during his remarks, which came just hours after he was arrested and pleaded not guilty at his Manhattan arraignment.
He seemed to suggest that he would have won the election if media companies and government agents had acted differently regarding the laptop, which contains a wealth of personal information about the president’s son, as well as emails about a range of business relationships.
And recently the FBI and DOJ conspired with Twitter and Facebook to say nothing bad about the Hunter Biden laptop from hell, exposing the Biden family as criminals in which pollsters say would have made a 17-point difference in the election results – we needed much less, about 16.9 million; said Trump. It would have been to our advantage. Not my favour, us favor because our country is going to hell.
Trump allies obtained a copy of the laptop from a Delaware computer store owner, who said he had also given it to the FBI. The New York Post reported on its contents weeks before the election.
Trump’s attacks on Judge Merchan came earlier in the Manhattan courtroom despite warnings to both sides.
“I encourage counsel for both sides to speak to your witnesses, defense counsel to speak to your client and remind them to refrain from making statements likely to incite violence and civil unrest,” he said.
“Refrain from behavior that could incite violence or cause civil unrest,” he warned.
“Do not leave with words or conduct that could jeopardize the rule of law as it applies to these proceedings in this courtroom.”
Trump attorney Todd Blanche agreed, telling the judge, “We can only do so much.”
On the document search, Trump said he had done nothing wrong, despite government investigators finding hundreds of documents marked “secret.”
“As president, I have the right to declassify,” he said, while Joe Biden didn’t have that when he was vice president.
He said he “negotiated in good faith” with the National Archives and Records Administration, a group he also attacked.
“We negotiated in good faith, in the proper manner, to return some or all of the documents that I took openly and in plain sight to Mara Lago from our beautiful White House,” he said.