Special Counsel Jack Smith could not get his January 6 election interference case against Donald Trump before a jury prior to Election Day, so he decided to lay it all out in a paper trial instead.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan – who hates Trump – unsealed a 165-page filing from Smith that he submitted after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that presidents are immune from prosecution for official acts. Smith tries to argue Trump is not immune.
The document is some three-and-a-half-times longer than the original 45-page indictment that charged Trump with three conspiracy counts related to various attempts to overturn the 2020 election results by him and his team and an obstruction count that dealt with the certification of the Electoral College results before and during a joint session of Congress.
In some ways, this filing is even better than an actual trial because it only offers Jack Smith’s side of the story. There are no defenses whatsoever. The quotes that the media are lapping up may be taken entirely out of context – and some, in fact, appear to be – just to hurt Trump four weeks before the election.
The Filing
In this brief, Smith’s team argues over and over and over again that Trump’s scheme was a private criminal effort and resorted to crimes to overturn the election.
I know this case very well, and here is my number one takeaway: While I believe Trump behaved terribly after he lost the 2020 election and you have heard me say that and defend former Vice President Mike Pence for almost four years, this is not a criminal matter. This is a private and a political matter.
Jack Smith is doing Cirque du Soleil-level acrobatics to try to make this a crime, and now he unveils this dramatic unsealed filing like it is not the same sh-t we have seen for years. We had an impeachment trial. We had a week-long January 6 public condemnation trial broadcast in primetime. We have had January 6 witnesses leading the news on virtually every network since 2020. We have had books written. Like, we know how he behaved.
What we are seeing here is a guy who clearly can’t stand Donald Trump releasing 165 pages worth of reasons why.
After this thing was unsealed, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung hit back saying, “The release of the falsehood-ridden, unconstitutional J6 brief immediately following Tim Walz’s disastrous debate performance is another obvious attempt by the Harris-Biden regime to undermine American Democracy and interfere in this election.”
That is an interesting point because this is what kind of what J.D. Vance did at the debate against Tim Walz on the question of January 6. He said ‘don’t lecture me on your commitment to democracy’ and pivoted to censorship. He accused Kamala Harris and Joe Biden of trying to restrict free speech. And now you have Team Trump saying this is election interference in real time; you are ceding whatever moral high ground you purported to have.
The Media Meltdown
But they are not dumb over on Team Blue, and they accurately predicted that the media would absolutely love this. Here is just a brief sampling of the headlines:
- MSNBC: Trump tried to block Jack Smith’s immunity brief. It backfired
- Politico: 11 damning details in Jack Smith’s new brief in the Trump election case
- ABC News: Bombshell immunity filing details Trump’s alleged ‘increasingly desperate’ bid to overturn the 2020 election
- NBC News: Trump ‘resorted to crimes’ to stay in office after 2020 loss, Jack Smith’s team says
Hello, we know that. That is what Jack Smith’s team has been saying. They indicted the man on four charges in a federal court alleging exactly that. How is it a bombshell? We truly learned nothing new. It is all tiny little details that don’t add anything.
For instance, he apparently got the data from Trump’s phone to see where he was when he was sending certain tweets from on January 6. The big reveal? He was in the dining room off the Oval Office. Okay. Is that going to change the next election? I mean, Jack Smith certainly hopes so.
And the media does, too. The quote “make them riot” is in the filing, and all these left-wing media publications are out there with a sleight of hand suggesting Donald Trump said that. It is not true.
If you look at the actual brief, prosecutors are describing an effort by Trump operatives to “create chaos.” The quote is actually attributed to a campaign staffer at a Detroit counting center who was speaking in relation to the threat of protests outside the venue.
That is some random campaign operative in Detroit. That is not Trump, but the headlines suggest otherwise:
- CNBC: ‘Make them riot’ — Trump election case judge unseals special counsel motion on immunity
- Deadline: “Make Them Riot”: Newly Unsealed Filing Gives New Details Of Federal Election Conspiracy Case Against Donald Trump
- MSNBC: ‘Make them riot:’ Jack Smith coup bombshell reveals damning evidence against Trump
No one makes clear that Trump is not accused of saying that. We have no idea who the rando campaign operative in Detroit is or whether anything was done as a result of said knuckleheaded comment. But it doesn’t matter to them.
The Takeaway
Regardless of the merits, it is important for us to understand exactly why they did this, what this is about, and what you need to know when you see your leftist friends over the next 30-plus days and they wave this thing in your face and tell you, this is a nightmare and you can’t possibly vote for this guy.
Mike Davis, founder of the Article III Project, joined me on Thursday’s show to break down exactly what you need to know, and you can watch our conversation below:
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Davis by tuning in to episode 905 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.