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Donald Trump's legal team is goading prosecution Jack Smith into making "foolish" decisions, a former federal prosecutor has said.
Writing in his Shipwrecked Crew legal blog, Bill Shipley wrote that Trump's attorneys in his classified documents case continue "to score political points by baiting special counsel Smith."
The former president is facing 40 federal charges over his handling of sensitive materials retrieved from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, after leaving the White House in January 2021. He is accused of obstructing efforts by federal authorities to return them. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Newsweek has contacted Trump's attorney and Jack Smith's office via email for comment on Monday.
Shipley, a former prosecutor, has specialized in offering criminal defense to the January 6 accused and currently represents 29 January 6 defendants.
Writing in his legal blog, he claimed that Smith "continues to be put in a position to step on a rake—and then he does exactly that."
"These efforts create 'news' cycles in the legal case where the political messaging gets repeatedly conveyed by the Trump campaign, while SC Smith and his troops are left wondering 'How did we get ourselves into this?' Shipley wrote.
As an example, he cited the Trump defense team "pumping up the outrage meter over the August 8, 2022, search for classified materials at the Mar A Lago resort."
Documents about the search were unsealed, showing that FBI agents involved in the search were authorized to use deadly force—a standard FBI declaration while seeking a search warrant from a judge. The Trump side was then able to spin a narrative for the media, Shipley suggested.
He said there were "so-called 'journalists', and elected officials all piling on with claims that the search warrant — with an 'authorization to use deadly force' against Trump, his family, and the Secret Service if they resisted—was in reality an 'assassination plan.'
"On May 24 SC Smith did rise to the bait and late in the day hurriedly filed a motion in the Florida court to modify the 'Conditions of Pretrial Release' for [Former President] Trump, seeking a 'gag order' preventing him from making 'deceptive and inflammatory' claims about FBI conduct," Shipley said, adding: "Smith meet garden rake—garden rake, meet Smith."
Shipley claims that examples like this show that the Trump team has been successful in bringing the political narrative "back in the legal arena" by making it look like Smith was trying to take away Trump's first amendment right to free speech," Shipley wrote.
By spinning it this way, Trump's team was able to suggest that "Smith was doing the bidding of Trump's political opponent who was responsible for the decision to indict Trump and to authorize a search warrant of Mar-a-Lago, in contrast to working cooperatively to resolve the dispute over documents as had been done with regard to Biden himself," Shipley added.
About the writer
Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more