John Dean, who served as White House counsel during the Nixon administration, said Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith will "keep up the fight" after issuing a superseding indictment in the federal election interference case against former President Donald Trump.
Smith filed the superseding indictment a day after he asked an appeals court to revive the classified documents case against Trump, which was dismissed last month in Florida by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon. The newly issued indictment retains the same four charges brought against Trump but cuts some elements in the wake of the Supreme Court's landmark ruling on presidential immunity last month.
"I think it's very clear he's going to keep up the fight," Dean said Tuesday night on CNN. "The Mar-a-Lago documents case, he filed a very aggressive brief. He did not ask for the judge to be removed."
Dean said he suspects "there's a very strong brief showing that … Judge Cannon had very little basis for tossing the case and dismissing the special prosecutor."
"There's a long history in the Department of Justice of attorney generals appointing special prosecutors," he said. "She [Cannon] wants to demolish that. Indeed she would, if her ruling upheld – all assistant U.S. attorneys would be out of work.
"So, it's a very striking situation down there and I think Jack Smith is aggressively defending the Department of Justice, his office and the cases he's filed."
Earlier this summer, the Supreme Court's conservative majority ruled that former presidents have immunity for some actions related to the core responsibilities of their office and are "at least presumptively immune" for all other official acts.
Cannon dismissed the documents case against Trump shortly after the high court issued its ruling, finding that Smith was not lawfully appointed and therefore had no authority to bring the case.
When asked if the presidential immunity ruling weakened Smith's case, Dean said to the contrary.
"I don't believe it's been weakened at all," he said. "In fact, if anything, given the immunity ruling, that's been strengthened; it can go through."
Following Smith's new indictment, Trump, who is running for a second term in the White House, railed against the special counsel in a series of posts on his Truth Social platform.
"In an effort to resurrect a ‘dead' Witch Hunt in Washington, D.C., in an act of desperation, and in order to save face, the illegally appointed ‘Special Counsel' Deranged Jack Smith, has brought a ridiculous new Indictment against me, which has all the problems of the old Indictment, and should be dismissed IMMEDIATELY," the former president posted Tuesday. "His Florida Document Hoax Case has been completely dismissed. This is merely an attempt to INTERFERE WITH THE ELECTION, and distract the American People from the catastrophes Kamala Harris has inflicted on our Nation, like the Border Invasion, Migrant Crime, Rampant Inflation, the threat of World War III, and more ..."
Nicole Wells ✉
Nicole Wells, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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