Rep. Stefanik files ethics complaint against Jack Smith

FPI / May 1, 2024

New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik on Tuesday filed an ethics complaint against special prosecutor Jack Smith, alleging his lawfare campaign against former President Donald Trump amounts to election interference.

In a letter to the head of the Office of Professional Responsibility at the Department of Justice, Stefanik accused Smith of “abusing the resources of the federal government to unlawfully interfere with the 2024 presidential election.”

By attempting to rush the D.C. trial of Trump ahead of this November’s election, Smith violated the DOJ’s Justice Manual, Stefanik said.

Stefanik's letter notes that Section 9-85.500 of the DOJ’s manual says that “[f]ederal prosecutors … may never select the timing of any action … for the purpose of affecting any election, or for the purpose of giving an advantage or disadvantage to any candidate or political party.”

The letter also asserts that Smith violated the stay of proceedings that was issued by Judge Tanya Chutkan while the Supreme Court reviews Trump’s immunity claim. If Trump wins, it would do away with Smith's indictment and no trial would be held.

Stefanik pointed out that Smith continued to serve Trump with 4,000 pages of discovery and file motions despite the judge’s order to halt proceedings.

“At every turn, he has sought to accelerate his illegal prosecution of President Trump for the clear (if unstated) purpose of trying him before the November election," Stefanik said of Smith. "The Justice Department’s own policies clearly prohibit Smith from doing so, and as a DOJ employee he is bound by those policies. Moreover, when the district court imposed a stay on the proceedings, Smith and his office ignored it and continued to file discovery documents. Smith’s conduct has brought disrepute to the Department of Justice and the entire federal government, and the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility should impose the discipline that such conduct warrants.”

Stefanik wrote: “Jack Smith emphatically said that ‘no one in this country … is above the law.’ If that is true, then he should be open to, and welcome, an ethics investigation into conduct that, on its face, implicates potential violations of DOJ policy and multiple rules of professional conduct. Biden special counsel Jack Smith’s highly unusual and clearly improper attempts to expedite trial, and his blatant violation of District Court orders, evidence his partisan attempt to influence the results of the 2024 presidential election.”

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