CNN Legal Analyst Admits Jack Smith Is Rushing Trump Trial To Secure Conviction Before 2024 Election

Elie Honig, a senior legal analyst for CNN, admitted that Special Counsel Jack Smith is trying to expedite former President Donald Trump’s January 6 case in an effort to secure a conviction before the 2024 election.

“I think any fair-minded observer has to agree with that,” Honig said when asked whether Smith and U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan were expediting the case.

“Just look at Jack Smith’s conduct in this case. The motivating principle behind every procedural request he’s made has been speed has been getting this trial in before the election,” Honig went on to say before roviding examples. “The average  federal conspiracy and fraud trial takes about a year and a half to two years between indictment and trial. In this case, we have dozens, hundreds of January 6th rioters caught on video, straightforward cases. They too were given about a year and a half to two years between indictment and trial. Jack Smith originally requested a trial date for Donald Trump, a far more complex case, five months out.”

“He wanted a January trial. It was set for two months later. So Donald Trump is being given far less time to prepare than other defendants. And the actions this week, Jack Smith won an argument on immunity in the district court and then went right to the Supreme Court,” he continued.

The case was initially slated for a March trial, though all proceedings have since been put on hold while the Supreme Court evaluates a key facet of the case.

Using an obscure statute that emerged following the Enron corruption scandal, federal prosecutors have been charging January 6 defendants with felony “obstruction of an official proceeding.” This has resulted in years-long prison terms for hundreds of January 6 defendants as opposed to what normally would result in disorderly conduct or parading arrests.

The obscure legal theory also applies to two of Smith’s charges against the former president relating to the January 6 protests and efforts to object to the electoral certification.