Legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said that if special counsel Jack Smith were to talk publicly about President-elect Trump’s federal court cases, he “doubt[s] it would go so well for President Trump.”
Smith currently has two cases against Trump: one for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election leading up to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, and the other for retaining classified documents in his Florida estate and obstructing justice.
“What you could do is call him in to testify. And there I would say to the Republicans, be careful what you ask for, because if Jack Smith has a forum to talk about these cases, it’s — I doubt it would go so well for President Trump,” Toobin told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Friday.
Since Trump’s victory in the presidential election, Smith had been weighing how to wind down the two cases against Trump, a move that would align with Justice Department policy barring the prosecution of sitting presidents. A Trump-led Justice Department was widely expected to shutter the charges, but Smith’s team is discussing pulling back the cases ahead of the inauguration.
On Friday, a federal judge granted a special request from Smith to suspend deadlines in Trump’s election interference case.
When asked during the interview if Smith could be jailed, Toobin offered reassurances, saying that “as long as the rule of law exists in something like its current form, there is no way you can imprison Jack Smith.”
Though, Trump has long signaled he plans to immediately dismantle special counsel Jack Smith’s office upon retaking the White House, telling conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt during an interview in October, “It’s so easy. I would fire him within two seconds.”
Trump’s civil cases, however, could move forward. Trump could be facing more than $500 million in penalties between judgments in the New York attorney general’s civil fraud case and two defamation suits brought by columnist E. Jean Carroll.
Justice Department policy precludes criminal prosecution against sitting president, though civil lawsuits against the Oval Office have been permitted to continue before, and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) said Wednesday that her office is prepared to take on a second Trump administration.
