House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik has filed an ethics complaint against special counsel Jack Smith, accusing him of violating DOJ standards and trying to improperly influence the 2024 presidential election against Donald Trump.
Stefanik’s letter to the DOJ watchdog argues that Smith broke policy by repeatedly pushing the Supreme Court to reject Trump’s claims of immunity and delay his trial related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, citing Smith’s requests for a January 2024 trial date as an attempt to have the case resolved before the next election.
“Jack Smith’s multiple attempts to rush to trial the federal January 6th case against President Trump violated long-standing, explicit Justice Department policy,” Stefanik wrote.
“Further, Jack Smith’s repeated violations of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia’s stay of proceedings are a lawless breach of trial ethics and lawyerly conduct. Jack Smith’s actions brought disrepute to the Justice Department and the federal government as a whole, and he should face discipline appropriately.”
She also points to Smith’s comments about no one being above the law as evidence he should welcome an ethics probe.
“There exist approximately thirteen million pages of discovery for President Trump to review, plus thousands of hours of camera footage. Prosecutors bringing a case of this complexity — with so many consequential and novel legal issues to sort out — would normally never seek to bring it to trial within five months,” Stefanik said.
“The only reason to push for such an early trial date was to work to get the case tried before the November election, and the Justice Department Manual clearly forbids Jack Smith from taking any action on that basis.”
The complaint takes issue with Smith rushing the complex case involving millions of pages of evidence to a trial within five months of his appointment, alleging the only reason for such an early date was to try the case prior to the 2024 vote.
The Supreme Court is weighing Trump’s immunity claims and is unlikely to allow a trial before the next presidential election.
“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,” Stefanik said. “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.”
