politics

This is actually a bigger deal than just a "No shit, Sherlock," only not in the direction of exposing what Trump did. We ALL fucking know he hoovered up whatever he thought he could sell on the international elite markets. That's no surprise; that's not even news.

But for those of us who waited all last year for Special Counsel Jack Smith's report to be released publicly, only to see it suppressed by Trump's favorite judge in Florida, Aileen Cannon, this is a big deal. It's sort of an Epstein Files, Part Duh.

Special Counsel Jack Smith is the guy who, along with a number of career (read: not partisan aligned) prosecutors, assembled two cases against Trump: the 2020 election interference, and the documents handling. The documents case is the one Aileen Cannon delayed until she could throw it out, and then when the report was due to be released, as they almost all are, she ordered that suppressed as well, along with all the evidence assembled backing it.

This gag order imposed on Jack Smith, specifically, is so unusually extreme and all-encompassing that Smith was legally barred from testifying to Congress on his own report's specific contents when subpoenaed to appear in a deposition by the House Judiciary Committee.

But with the same nimble political dexterity they have handled the Epstein files, Trump and his butt sniffers on the House Judiciary Committee have been trying like hell to smear Jack Smith: the report is apparently so incendiary they all live in fear of it coming out, so they have been working overtime to get ahead of the inevitable leak or release by using it to disparage Jack Smith and by extension his evidence.

In pursuit of this goal of somehow maligning Jack Smith, the House Judiciary Committee has been using that report like a menu to request materials about the original case from the DoJ. And they've been getting them -- including materials that either include or make detailed mention of the specific information that Judge Cannon specifically embargoed in her order suppressing Smith's report and any discussion of it, including Smith's Congressional testimony:

This particular production contained a memorandum detailing non-public information about the classified documents Trump stole when leaving office. The newly produced materials offer a startling view of evidence gathered by Special Counsel Jack Smith during his investigations into the criminal activity of President Trump, even as DOJ continues to suppress Volume II of his final report.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking (non-butt-sniffing) member of the House Judiciary Committee, saw this for what it is and fired off a letter to Pam Bondi, detailing what was obviously being hidden and demanding answers, specifically, "on who accessed the materials, what they contained, and whether any foreign actors were able to access or exploit the information. He also called for the release of all remaining investigative files, including the full, unredacted Special Counsel report."

This is also directly relevant to the war in Iran:

“If this map is related to our military posture in the Middle East, and it was in fact shown to any foreign official, Saudi or otherwise, that would amount to an unforgiveable betrayal of our men and women in uniform who are currently valiantly fighting in President Trump’s disastrous war against Iran,” wrote Ranking Member Raskin.

This is the upshot (emphasis mine):

DOJ’s hypocrisy in gagging Jack Smith is underscored by this latest disclosure. Special Counsel Smith remains barred from sharing information with Congress under a sweeping gag order imposed by Justice Cannon, at the request of Donald Trump, and enforced by DOJ. At the same time, DOJ has produced cherry-picked documents to aid Chairman Jordan’s vindictive campaign against Special Counsel Smith and his team, including some documents that appear to violate Judge Cannon’s order. DOJ appears to view the judicial order as rules for thee—Jack Smith—but not for me. However, it appears that the evidence against Donald Trump collected by Jack Smith and memorialized in his records is so damning, that even DOJ’s carefully curated production cannot fully excise findings that the President sold out national security to advance his own business interests.