Rep. Elise Stefanik files ethics complaint against Special Counsel Jack Smith
Special Counsel Jack Smith rose to prominence last year when he indicted former President Donald Trump over his handling of classified documents as well as his alleged actions following the 2020 election.
Yet while Smith has spent years investigating Trump, one GOP congresswoman says that Smith needs to face an investigation of his own.
Elise Stefanik says Smith is guilty of election interference
According to Fox News, New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik filed an ethics complaint against Smith on Tuesday with the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility.
Specifically, Stefanik alleged that Smith has been "abusing the resources of the federal government to unlawfully interfere with the 2024 presidential election."
"Jack Smith’s multiple attempts to rush to trial the federal January 6th case against President Trump violated long-standing, explicit Justice Department policy," Stefanik wrote
Democrats’ corrupt and desperate witch hunts against President Trump must come to an end. This is lawfare and blatant election interference, and the American people know it.
That is why today I filed an official complaint with the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional… pic.twitter.com/cERZYIbXX8
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) April 30, 2024
"Further, Jack Smith’s repeated violations of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia’s stay of proceedings are a lawless breach of trial ethics and lawyerly conduct," she continued.
Stefanik points to Justice Department Manual
"Jack Smith's actions brought disrepute to the Justice Department and the federal government as a whole, and he should face discipline appropriately," the House GOP Conference chair asserted.
"There exist approximately thirteen million pages of discovery for President Trump to review, plus thousands of hours of camera footage," Stefanik complained.
"Prosecutors bringing a case of this complexity — with so many consequential and novel legal issues to sort out — would normally never seek to bring it to trial within five months," she argued.
Stefanik maintained that "[t]he only reason to push for such an early trial date was to work to get the case tried before the November election, and the Justice Department Manual clearly forbids Jack Smith from taking any action on that basis."
Congresswoman accuses Smith of having partisan motives
The lawmaker later went on to recall how in a petition Smith previously submitted to the Supreme Court, he noted that no one is "above the law" in America.
"If that is true, then he should be open to, and welcome, an ethics investigation into conduct that, on its face, implicates potential violations of DOJ policy and multiple rules of professional conduct," Stefanik declared.
"Biden special counsel Jack Smith's highly unusual and clearly improper attempts to expedite trial, and his blatant violation of District Court orders, evidence his partisan attempt to influence the results of the 2024 presidential election," she concluded.
