John Dowd, President Trump's former lawyer writes at MS NOW:
Former
special counsel Jack Smith is scheduled to appear on Wednesday for a closed-door
interview with the House Judiciary Committee, despite his request
to testify
in an open and public hearing. In my opinion, Republicans are depriving the
American people of the opportunity to hear from a career prosecutor who
investigated serious allegations that President Donald Trump tried to overturn
the 2020 election and unlawfully retained classified documents.
I am not a
newcomer to high-profile and politically charged investigations. Over a legal
career spanning six decades, I prosecuted mobsters and politicians, and I
defended both Republican and Democratic senators and House
members. More recently, I represented President Trump during his
first term in the special counsel’s investigation into allegations of collusion
between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Republicans
are depriving the American people of the opportunity to hear from a career
prosecutor who investigated serious allegations against the president.
Jack Smith
was once my adversary in a high-profile investigation of a Republican client.
In that investigation, Smith proved himself to be fair, impartial and
fearlessly committed to the facts and the law. He was unmotivated by partisan
politics. But recent attacks on Smith are motivated by partisan politics, and
they are untethered to the facts or the law.
As a
prosecutor, I have experienced the pressure applied to attorneys pursuing
high-profile investigations. During my time in the Department of Justice in the
1970s, I oversaw the federal investigation into Pennsylvania Democrat Dan
Flood, a House appropriations subcommittee chairman. The attorney general’s
office received some 300 phone calls from members of Congress urging us to drop
the investigation. Then-President Jimmy Carter never pressured us to back down
— despite some lawmakers threatening that if Carter did not get the Justice
Department to drop the investigation, his legislation would go nowhere.
That’s how
the Justice Department is supposed to work. You follow the facts and the law,
and you don’t let politics pollute decision-making. You swear an oath to the
Constitution and put country first; you do not swear an oath to the person
temporarily occupying the presidency. And you do not put the private interests
of one man over the interests of every United States citizen.
That
commitment to the rule of law is what I experienced from Jack Smith when I
represented Rep. Don Young of Alaska, one of the highest-ranking Republicans in
Congress at the time. Smith inherited this investigation when he became chief
of the Public Integrity Section — the Justice Department unit that oversaw
public corruption cases from 1976 until the Trump administration effectively
dismantled it this year. Back then, the FBI had been investigating the
congressman for years, but he had done nothing wrong. When Smith took over the
case, I asked to meet with him and discuss the investigation of my client.
That’s how
the Justice Department is supposed to work. You follow the facts and the law,
and you don’t let politics pollute decision-making.
Smith met
with me for more than three hours. He had clearly read the case and asked
thoughtful, probing questions. A few days after the meeting, Smith called to
inform me that he was declining to prosecute.
In all of
my interactions with him, Smith demonstrated that he was a straight shooter,
open-minded and a man of integrity. He did not let politics influence an
investigation, and he did not care whether my client was a Republican or a
Democrat. That is the Jack Smith I know. I cannot stand silent while he is
vilified by people who do not know him.
Jack Smith
should be celebrated for courageously pursuing justice. I say this not as a
member of any political party but as a lawyer, prosecutor, defense attorney and
former Marine who cares more deeply about the rule of law and the well-being of
our country than I do about the whims of a former client
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