April 30, 2024
By Ryan King
House Republican Conference chair Elise Stefanik is calling for an ethics investigation into special counsel Jack Smith, accusing him of meddling in the 2024 presidential election.
On Tuesday, Stefanik (R-NY) sent a letter to the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, demanding it conduct a review of Smith’s handling of the election subversion case revolving around former President Donald Trump.
“It’s obvious to any reasonable observer that Jack Smith is trying to interfere with the 2024 election and stop the American people from electing Donald Trump,” Stefanik said in a statement.
Stefanik, widely seen as a contender to be Trump’s running mate, rattled off a litany of grievances, accusing Smith of improperly seeking to expedite a trial and issuing court filings in the 2020 election subversion case while it was on stay.
Last December, Smith’s team pleaded with the Supreme Court to leapfrog over the appeals courts and fast-track consideration of Trump’s presidential immunity appeal.
At the time, Smith contended that the “public interest in a prompt resolution of this case favors an immediate, definitive decision by” the high court.
Ultimately, the Supreme Court rejected Smith’s bid, resulting in the trial start date — initially slated for March 4 — getting delayed indefinitely. Underpinning Smith’s effort was likely a concern that Trump could push the trial past the election, win the presidency, and then order the DOJ to drop the charges.
“This extraordinary petition sought to bypass the normal appellate process,” Stefanik stressed. “The only way to reconcile Jack Smith’s filings is to recognize that his obvious goal was not to seek justice and the neutral application of the law, but rather to get President Trump — and get him before November.”
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the matter last Thursday but has yet to hand down a decision on the matter.
Stefanik highlighted a provision in the DOJ manual stipulating that 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.”
Labeling him “Biden special counsel Jack Smith,” Stefanik also echoed a grievance from Trump’s legal team over how Smith’s office made court filings in the 2020 election supervision case after US District Judge Tanya Chutkan put proceedings on hold amid the immunity appeal.
“Jack Smith repeatedly flouted the District Court’s order. First, Jack Smith served nearly 4,000 pages of discovery on President Trump. Then, after the Supreme Court rejected his petition for certiorari before judgment, Jack Smith filed a motion in limine in District Court,” Stefanik explained.
Earlier this year, Chutkan rejected a bid to hold Smith in contempt of court for making the filings amid the pause.
The Post sought comment from a spokesperson for the special counsel’s office.
Smith is tasked with overseeing the DOJ’s four-count indictment against Trump over the 2020 election and the 40-count indictment over the Mar-a-Lago document ordeal.
Trump, who is facing a total of 88 criminal counts spanning four indictments, has pleaded not guilty to all of them and denied wrongdoing across the board.
Both Stefanik and Smith were named on Time magazine’s list of 100 most influential people for 2024.
Stefanik, who was among the first members of Congress to endorse Trump’s 2024 bid, has repeatedly disparaged Smith’s prosecution of the 45th president in public.
