Federal prosecutor Jack Smith is facing pressure to re-think his January 6th case against Donald Trump after the Supreme Court delivered the former president a massive win that could delay the trial indefinitely.
James Zirin, an anti-Trump prosecutor, suggested it might be time for Smith to "throw in the towel" in a lengthy piece in The Hill acknowledging that Trump's "strategy of delay has largely worked."
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Time for Smith to give up?
Smith's case was originally scheduled to begin this week, but it has been paused pending Trump's appeal on the question of presidential immunity.
The Supreme Court's decision to take up Trump's appeal makes a trial before the election very unlikely.
Zirin noted that a trial before the election in November "is not promising" and that even if Trump were to go to trial in the summer, a prosecution in such close proximity to the election would present its own problems.
"Then there is the concern that if we get too close to the election, the trial judge, Tanya Chutkan, may not want to try the case," he said.
Smith also appears to have all but given up, Zirin wrote, noting that Smith asked for a July trial date in his separate classified documents case.
That suggests Smith is not planning on trying Trump in D.C. this summer.
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Smith has repeatedly cited the need to move quickly, but he has been reluctant to cite the election as a reason.
Trump and his supporters say Smith is clearly angling for a conviction before voters go to the polls in November, which would constitute election interference.
Zirin pointed to a number of anti-Trump pundits who are coming to terms with the likely reality that Trump will not be prosecuted, including David Axelrod, who wrote that "American voters will have to act as the jury."
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Zirin agreed, saying "it will be for the electorate to decide what kind of president we want in the White House."
He suggested Smith instead release a report, like Robert Mueller's report on Russian collusion, to try the case in the court of public opinion.
"While not as good as a conviction, the report might helpfully demonstrate, based on incontestable facts, that Trump was guilty of criminal behavior, that he didn’t just violate presidential norms but crossed the line into a breach of the laws he was sworn to uphold," Zirin wrote.
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