Jack Smith Sports 'No Kings' Shirt at Protest Rock Concert
Former special counsel Jack Smith attends Power to the People Fest in Columbia, Md., on Oct. 3.
By Jonathan Turley
After his recent congressional testimony, former Special Counsel Jack Smith recently appeared at a “Power to the People Fest” sporting a “No Kings” tee shirt. Aside from a midlife crisis, the most likely explanation is that Smith wanted to send a message, reaffirming his bona fides as an anti-Trump warrior.
It was a Comey moment, but without the seashells.
The Power to the People Fest featured many whom Smith has long cultivated in the “Democracy-is-Ending” crowd. The organizers billed the event as “working to restore and strengthen democracy” and featured some of Trump’s loudest critics.
The top billing went to Bruce Springsteen, who has lately turned his concerts into anti-Trump rave sessions, including comparing Trump officials to “Gestapo” and calling the administration “treasonous.” He continued those attacks at the concert with Smith, denouncing Trump as “lawless” and this administration as murderers.
For his part, Tom Morello, the chief organizer of the rally, has called Trump and his administration “fascists” and leading crowds in chants of “F— Trump.”
And there was Smith in his own “No Kings” tee shirt.
It was a particularly inopportune time, as new evidence on Capitol Hill showed how Smith not only seized phone records of Republican members of Congress, but tracked communications with Trump’s attorney.
Smith has always been undone by his excessive appetite and his habitual failure to respect the limits on his authority. He has a history of losing major cases by advancing excessive and abusive legal claims. This included his stinging defeat in a unanimous Supreme Court decision dismantling his case against former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R).
During the Trump investigation, Smith showed that he had learned nothing from his losses. Indeed, former Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith with full knowledge of his past disregard for constitutional limits.
Smith richly deserves to be criticized for his unrelenting attack on free speech protections as well as his decision to file a second case focusing on the 2020 election. And the unfolding details of how Smith seized the telephone records of Republican members of Congress, including those investigating his own conduct, only confirm suspicions that Smith wanted to bag Trump at any cost. That included seeking to curtail appeals and rush prosecutions before the 2024 election. Smith failed when Trump chose to run despite the lawfare, and he failed again when Trump handily won the election. But Smith’s obsession was so consuming that he was willing to try Trump right up to Inauguration Day.
Smith has always been undone by his habitual failure to respect limits on his authority. He has a history of losing major cases by advancing excessive and abusive legal claims. This included his stinging defeat in a unanimous Supreme Court decision dismantling his case against former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R).
The new details of Smith’s investigation should outrage members of both parties. The use of pen registers (to identify the destination of outbound calls and messages) and of trap and trace orders (for incoming) entirely disregarded longstanding rules protecting the legislative branch from such encroachments. And what is particularly alarming is that these searches were obvious fishing expeditions — these were not focused searches on specific wrongdoing, like the searches involving the corruption case against Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) 20 years ago.
In addition to members of Congress, Smith and his team monitored the activities of Trump’s legal defense team, journalists and campaign advisers. That includes now-White House chief of staff Susie Wiles’ phone. At the same time, Smith secured a non-disclosure order from the court that prevented mobile carriers from notifying the affected lawmakers that they were being spied on. Thus, as members were looking into Smith’s excesses, they were not told that he was receiving and poring over their telephone records.
The White House Government Transparency Task Force released material this week showing that Smith’s team used an investigation codenamed “Plasmic Echo” to engage in an untethered fishing expedition. Notably, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco signed off on the sweeping seizure with no apparent effort to address obvious constitutional concerns over the right to counsel and Article I powers. Once again, Garland was entirely passive and simply endorsed the recommendations of those around him.
FBI Director Christopher Wray sent a March 2022 memo to Garland and Monaco seeking the attorney general’s approval to launch Plasmic Echo. Monaco added her endorsement before Garland signed off.
FBI investigators traced “Wiles’ phone calls and text messages with at least 21 lawyers affiliated with Trump, numerous campaign staff, political advisors, and at least five journalists from at least February to May 2023.”
This investigation also involved gathering intelligence on Trump’s political action committee, including its donors and campaign expenses.
Smith and the FBI continued the aggressive posture even as agents were balking at some of these means, including those who felt that the raid on Mar-a-Lago was unnecessary to resolve the concerns over the classified material.
Smith has continued to portray himself as unbiased and not motivated in any way by the election: “Anybody who has worked with me and knows me during the course of my career knows that I would not let politics play a role,” he has said.
But shortly afterward, he appeared in his No Kings tee shirt at the Power to the People fest. It was vintage Smith — an almost mocking arrogance in the face of growing criticism over his methods and partisanship.
The irony is that Smith was a better fit as a member of this profanity-spewing anti-Trump crowd than he ever was as special counsel. The pretense was gone, and he was finally in his element. In that sense, he might view this as his coming-out party, but Smith actually came out years ago.
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