OPINION:
Never mind for a moment the indictments against Donald Trump — Democrats have been prosecuting and persecuting this president since the early days of his announced 2016 run for president; if it’s not this indictment, it’s that; if it’s not that allegation, it’s this; if it’s not Russia collusion, Russia collusion, Russia collusion, it’s some crazy pee tape or another.
But shouldn’t Americans know who’s on the team now trying to take down Trump?
Team Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to go after Trump, apparently thinks not — that it’s a matter of “privacy” to withhold the names of those involved in this investigation, as Fox News reported.
That hardly sounds American.
The Constitution, after all, clearly states in the Sixth Amendment that the “accused shall enjoy the right” “to be confronted with the witnesses against him.” Yes, that’s a stipulation for trial. But shouldn’t that spirit — shouldn’t that intent — apply to instances where tax-paid government bureaucrats working for agencies already seen as political weapons are hand-picked to prosecute the guy who happens to be the front-runner for president for the party that’s opposite the one in charge?
Seems sensible.
Seems common sense.
But this is where we’re at, as a country: “Judicial Watch announced last week that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the DOJ [Department of Justice] to obtain records disclosing the names of the staffers working on Trump’s case. The DOJ previously refused to disclose the names, claiming it would ‘constitution a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy,’ Judicial Watch said,” Fox wrote.
That’s an interesting way of going about a public takedown of a former president of the United States who is in the midst of running for another term. Hidden. Secret. Shhh — don’t tell who’s behind the curtain of prosecutorial investigation.
Smith is the special counsel picked by Garland to lead up the investigation of Trump’s so-called mishandling of classified documents — part two. Or is it three? Smith has spent a considerable portion of his career going after politicians for various abuses of power — or not. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, for example, was indicted in 2014 by Smith’s public integrity unit at the Justice Department on various corruption charges, all of which were tossed from court four years later. It was an 8-0 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, by the way. When does that happen?
On Trump, Smith put out a statement, in part, that went like this: “Our laws that protect national defense information are critical for the safety and security of the United States.”
And you know what that means, don’t you? That’s leftist code for “let’s get the SOB” — meaning Trump. The clue is in the patriotic tenor and reference to law: Whenever Democrats, whenever leftists, whenever pretend unbiased individuals working for Democrats and leftists start talking about law and security of America, you know they’re lying — you know they’re actually talking up the opposite. It’s like when Nancy Pelosi talks about “God’s children” — in the context of talking about MS-13. Or when the soulless Joe Biden prays.
“I always pray with a rosary,” Biden said in 2022, during a pilgrimage to the Basilica of the Nativity and the Church of St. Catherine. Yes, the better to fiddle with; it helps keep him awake. It helps with the show.
But that’s to digress.
The real issue here is this: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is in the midst of “writing an appropriations rider to defund Jack Smith, special counsel, his office and the investigation” because, she claims, “this is a weaponized government attempt to take down the top political enemy and leading presidential candidate of the United States, Donald J. Trump” — and Americans can’t even form a full, independent opinion on the matter because the government won’t give up the names who are helping Smith go after Trump.
If Smith and the DOJ wanted to shed some of the perception of bias and political weaponization, it would seem a no-brainer to at least give up the names of those on the team tasked to investigate Trump.
Are we still to believe the DOJ and FBI and intel agencies serving under Democratic control are non-biased, above the political fray, utterly independent and devoid of partisan leanings?
As Rep. Matt Gaetz just found: One of Smith’s deputies, Karen Gilbert, faced allegations of misconduct when she served as head of the narcotics division at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Florida — allegations so bad she ultimately resigned; allegations so bad the DOJ actually issued an apology.
“[It’s] beyond debate,” Gaetz said in a letter to Garland requesting “all staff rosters, phone lists” and the like, for “all employees hired by or detailed to the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith” — it’s “beyond debate,” he wrote, that “this simple staff list” be made available to the public and to Congress.
Saying it’s a matter of “privacy” is bogus. Suggesting the American people don’t have a right to know how their tax dollars are being spent or how their tax-paid bureaucrats are spending their time is bogus. Stymying the release of names of Team Smith investigators to the point where FOIA requests must be filed and threats of defunding must be made only furthers the perception of political bias.
This is not how lawful, orderly governments are run.
Trump was arraigned on 37 criminal charges.
This is the first time in U.S. history that a former president has ever faced federal arraignment.
The arraignment comes during a hot political climate, a divisive political climate, during a hot political election season for the president of the United States — of which Trump is actively seeking.
The charges also come on the heels of years of partisan attack on Trump for accusations that have all been shown as fabrications; on the heels of two impeachments against Trump — one when he wasn’t even holding the office of president any longer, for crying out loud; and amid a flurry of scandals and corruptions and alleged crimes tied to none other than Biden and his family — tied to the guy in charge of those currently investigating Trump.
And DOJ doesn’t want to release the names of Smith’s helpers?
This latest investigation of Trump crimes already stinks to high heaven. But then again, we already know that.
The tell was when Democrats talked about law and order and preserving the Constitution and upholding justice for all.
“While there are innumerable value legislative purposes for this request,” Gaetz wrote, “it should be obvious that doing due diligence in vetting an office that has apparently done no vetting of its own personnel, or worse, might affirmatively be seeking to staff with sanctioned lawyers and partisan hatchet-men (and women), is an entirely appropriate purpose and one small reason I am requesting this information.”
An open, transparent process requires the release of names.
Secret, hidden, cloaked prosecutions of politicians are the stuff of banana republics, tyrants, dictators and Marxists — not the United States of America.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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