Special Counsel’s Jack Smith’s indictment against former President Donald Trump over Jan. 6 is a “direct attack on our constitution,” an attorney representing Trump said Tuesday.
Smith secured a four-count indictment of Trump relating to his efforts to contest the results of the 2020 election. Trump was ordered to appear before a federal magistrate Thursday.
“I’m concentrating on the First Amendment issues,” attorney John Lauro told Fox News host Bret Baier. “I’m concentrating on this case, which is a direct attack on our Constitution.” (RELATED: Fox Legal Analyst Calls Jack Smith A ‘Partisan’ Special Counsel, Says He Has Already ‘Made Up His Mind’ About Trump)
Smith previously secured a 37-count indictment against Trump in June based on an investigation into allegations surrounding classified documents, which was supplemented with a superseding indictment issued Thursday that included charges against Carlos De Oliveira, a maintenance worker at Mar-a-Lago, the Florida estate owned by former President Trump.
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“The way that they are trying to take out Donald Trump is through legal process, so he is being forced to spend money on legal defense which should be spent of spent on the discussion of critical ideas and critical issues,” Lauro said. “People want to hear the issues. They don’t want to re-litigate 2020. And that’s exactly what the special counsel – I should say Merrick Garland – Merrick Garland and the Biden administration had to sign off on this indictment. And what they have really done is invited now a re-litigation of 2020, but this time in a criminal court, which is unprecedented.”
“No sitting president has ever been criminally charged for his views, for taking a position, and by the way, is there any doubt there is two systems of justice in the United States?” Lauro asked “Was Hillary Clinton prosecuted for the Russian hoax? Were those individuals who said ‘don’t worry about the Biden laptop because it is just Russian disinformation,’ are they being prosecuted? No.”
Special Counsel John Durham released a report May 15 on the origins of the FBI investigation of allegations that former President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia Monday that found that the FBI “did not and could not corroborate” the claims from the now-discredited Steele Dossier.
“Only one person in America is being prosecuted for his political beliefs, and that should send a chill, a warning, to every single American who one day wants to get up and say this is what I believe in. I disagree with the Biden administration, but these are the beliefs I have,” Lauro said. “Because every person who does that now is subject to potential criminal case.”
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