House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) on Tuesday filed an ethics complaint against Special Counsel Jack Smith for alleged election interference, arguing that he violated Department of Justice (DOJ) standards and is trying to influence the election against former President Trump by bringing charges against him.

Stefanik sent a letter to the DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility, asking the watchdog to investigate Smith's conduct and saying he is "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.

"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. "Jack Smith’s actions brought disrepute to the Justice Department and the federal government as a whole, and he should face discipline appropriately."

In limbo

Smith's case accuses Trump of trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election, but is now in limbo pending a Supreme Court decision about his presidential immunity.

"There exist approximately thirteen million pages of discovery for President Trump to review, plus thousands of hours of camera footage. 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.

"The 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," she concluded.

Stefanik used Smith's own words that "no one is above the law" against him, arguing that on the basis of those words Smith should be in support of an investigation into him.

"Fully in compliance"

Smith's team has argued against previous election interference claims by Trump's lawyers, with the prosecutor in the classified documents case Jay Bratt stating that the Justice Department Manual cited by Stefanik only prohibits filing new charges within 60 days of an election, not taking actions or going forward with a previously charged trial within that time period.

“That provision does not apply to cases that have already been charged, that are being litigated. It doesn’t apply to setting a trial date. We are fully in compliance,” Bratt told the court.

The fact remains that no other former president--including Richard Nixon--was ever charged with a crime after he left office because there used to be too much respect for the office to charge a former president with a relatively minor crime like the ones Trump is charged with.

The fact that Democrats have done so now shows both their absolute hatred of Trump and their desire to do anything they can to prevent him from regaining the presidency.

Backfiring

The public seems to be seeing through this charade, since only about a quarter think Trump will be convicted of anything at this point.

Furthermore, his polling has actually strengthened significantly since the indictments started coming down last year, so it seems like the Democrats' plot to weaken him has royally backfired on them--as well it should have.