Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley sounded off Tuesday on the overnight release of former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report on the investigation into President-elect Donald Trump and election interference, telling “Fox & Friends” that the document read more like a personal defense.
JONATHAN TURLEY: Well, this report is vintage Jack Smith. It shows an absolute disregard for the controlling decisions of the Supreme Court. Two decisions really undermined his case, and he sort of dismisses both of them. One dealt with obstruction, one dealt with immunity. He minimized both of those… But this report really says more about Smith. It reads more like a defense argument than a prosecution argument. But he’s defending himself. You know, he says it’s laughable that he was engaged in politics. Well, that’s not the view of a lot of people. I mean, because we saw virtually everything in this report before, he released much of this before the election. None of us could understand the rationale for releasing it publicly except to influence the election. And it didn’t work.
In the lengthy report released early Tuesday by Attorney General Merrick Garland, Smith said his office fully stands behind the decision to bring criminal charges against Trump because he “resorted to a series of criminal efforts to retain power” after he lost the 2020 election.
Smith said in his conclusion that the parties were determining whether any material in the “superseding indictment was subject to presidential immunity” when it became clear that Trump had won the 2024 election. The department then determined the case must be dismissed before he takes office because of how it interprets the Constitution.
“The Department’s view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Office stands fully behind,” the report stated.
In an early Tuesday morning post on Truth Social, Trump called Smith “desperate” and “deranged” for releasing his “fake findings” in the middle of the night.
Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
