A pivotal choice by special counsel Jack Smith to prosecute President Donald Trump in Florida rather than Washington, D.C., has come under renewed scrutiny inside the Justice Department after the case's collapse this summer.
Interviews and internal accounts reviewed by Carol Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis in their upcoming book, "Injustice," reveal that Smith's team, divided over strategy, miscalculated the risks and the odds that the case would fall to a judge viewed as sympathetic to Trump.
Inside the Justice Department, Smith's decision remains the subject of debate. Supporters say the Florida venue was legally sound; critics call it a fatal strategic error.
David Raskin, a veteran federal prosecutor who helped build the classified-documents case, was stunned when he learned of Smith's decision in early 2023 to file the case in Florida, where Trump stored government records at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Raskin feared doing so could result in its assignment to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who had already ruled in his favor once before.
Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022, believed the legal foundation was stronger in Florida, where much of the alleged conduct occurred.
A memo by Justice Department appellate lawyer James Pearce argued that bringing charges in Washington risked a venue challenge that could derail the case on appeal.
Prosecutors calculated that the odds of Cannon drawing the case were roughly 1 in 6. That estimate proved optimistic.
When the grand jury in Miami returned a 37-count indictment on June 8, 2023, the case landed squarely in Cannon's courtroom.
"We're screwed," one senior official said when the news broke.
The special counsel's office pressed ahead, but over the following year, Cannon issued a series of rulings that frustrated Smith's team.
In July 2024, she dismissed the case entirely, ruling that Smith had not been lawfully appointed under the Constitution, a position drawn from a nonbinding opinion by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
The decision marked a stunning reversal for prosecutors who had viewed the documents case as their strongest against Trump.
FBI agents had found more than 11,000 government records at Mar-a-Lago in 2022, including 18 marked "top secret" and others labeled "confidential."
Evidence also indicated Trump instructed aides to move boxes before his attorneys could review them, leading to false assurances to investigators.
The collapse of the case has reshaped the Justice Department and the political landscape.
Trump, who portrayed the prosecution as an act of political vengeance, used the outcome to bolster his campaign narrative that he was the victim of a "weaponized" federal government.
Since Trump's reelection, his allies have dismissed dozens of prosecutors involved in both Smith investigations and initiated inquiries into his political rivals.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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