Jack Smith's October surprise filing in Donald Trump's January 6th case is a "big win" for Trump, according to a former federal prosecutor appointed by Barack Obama.
The judge in the case, Tanya Chutkan, last week released a 165-page filing from Smith that accuses Trump of "resorting to crimes" to stay in power.
While many have accused Smith of interfering in the presidential election, Joyce Vance, a former prosecutor and commentator, said the filing is beneficial to Trump because it gives his lawyers a map of the trial.
"This brief puts Trump's team in a better position to respond, to make their own immunity arguments, and to prepare their case," Vance said on the podcast Stay Tuned With Preet Bharara.
Smith's move has been condemned by legal analysts across the aisle as a breach of legal ethics, with CNN pundit Elie Honig calling it a "cheap shot" aimed at kneecapping Trump's campaign. But some are skeptical that Smith's filing will have any impact on voters.
"This is, in fact, a win for Trump. And I guarantee you that nobody in the public who spent their time reading 165 pages in detail didn't have their mind already made up about this election, right? The broad contours here, they are well known. This is not impacting the election," Vance insisted.
Smith was desperate to prosecute Trump before the election, but the case was delayed by Trump's appeals on the issue of presidential immunity. The Supreme Court ruled in July that presidents have broad immunity from prosecution for their official acts, forcing Smith to tailor his sweeping indictment.
Smith's superseding indictment retains many of the allegations against Trump, but Smith instead refers to Trump as a political candidate rather than a sitting president.
Given the low odds of Trump receiving a fair trial in overwhelmingly Democratic Washington D.C., his best hope of exoneration likely lies with winning the presidency and having the case dismissed outright.
Trump's lawyers asked the judge Thursday not to release any more of Smith's "unlawfully cherry-picked and mischaracterized" evidence while voting is underway.
“There should be no further disclosures at this time of the so-called ‘evidence’ that the Special Counsel’s Office has unlawfully cherry-picked and mischaracterized—during early voting in the 2024 Presidential election—in connection with an improper Presidential immunity filing that has no basis in criminal procedure or judicial precedent,” his lawyers wrote.
