(Photo by Tom Brenner for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
New York Rep. Elise Stefanik took a break yesterday from pretending to care about Jewish undergrads to vomit out yet another demand to speak to the manager … this time of the Justice Department.
She’s already staged publicity stunts attacking New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron for being mean to Donald Trump and US District Judge Beryl Howell for not being mean to Democrats. And now she wants the DOJ to do something about Special Counsel Jack Smith. Or, as she refers to him, “Biden special counsel Jack Smith.”
In a letter addressed to Jeffrey Ragsdale, a career Justice Department official who serves as counsel to the Office of Professional Responsibility, the congresswoman demanded an ethics investigation of Smith for “abusing the resources of the federal government to unlawfully interfere with the 2024 presidential election.”
Her theory is that the special counsel violated the DOJ’s prohibition on “select[ing] the timing of any action, including investigative steps, criminal charges, or statements, for the purpose of affecting any election, or for the purpose of giving an advantage or disadvantage to any candidate or political party.”
How did he do that?
Well, he requested a trial date in January of 2024, which is eight months before the election and would have ensured that the case was concluded well before the campaign got underway. But, see, that’s election interference, because “The only reason to push for such an early trial date was to work to get the case tried before the November election, and the Justice Department Manual clearly forbids Jack Smith from taking any action on that basis.”
An unknowing observer might note that a scheduling motion is neither an investigative step, nor a criminal charge. It’s not even a statement, like, say, if the AG hyped an investigation into non-existent ballot fraud in Pennsylvania six weeks before a presidential election. But Congress Karen scoffs that the provision applies to all “actions,” including post-indictment motions taken in the normal course of a federal prosecution. (She fails to mention that the provision which mentions “actions” simply requires a prosecutor to consult with the Public Integrity Section and/or the Attorney General.)
Stefanik is also highly indignant that the special counsel petitioned the Supreme Court for certiorari before judgment on the issue of absolute presidential immunity for all crimes taken in office, and then, when that failed, urged the Court to accept the thorough holding of the DC Circuit and remand the case for trial. And she insists that he violated the trial court’s stay order by continuing to comply with discovery obligations before it became clear that the Supreme Court’s conservatives were going to make damn sure that Donald Trump never sees the inside of a federal courtroom. Here on Planet Earth, Judge Tanya Chutkan already ruled that the special counsel did not violate the stay order, so the suggestion that he violated D.C. Rule of Professional Conduct 3.4(c)’s prohibition on “knowingly disobey[ing] an obligation under the rules of a tribunal” would appear to be DOA.
Nevertheless, “your office should open an investigation into Biden special counsel Jack Smith’s apparent violations of Justice Department standards and his other ethical duties, in Biden special counsel Jack Smith’s obvious attempt to politicize his criminal prosecution and unlawfully interfere in the 2024 presidential election,” concluded Stefanik — or whichever MAGA intern tapped out this POS letter.
And then, the real work began! They quickly dispatched the missive to its real intended recipients at Fox, the Washington Examiner, the New York Post, and The Hill, before trumpeting their great accomplishment on the congresswoman’s website.
No doubt Mr. Ragland will give Rep. Stefanik’s complaint all the attention it deserves — just as the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct and Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan did with her prior tattle stunts.
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos substack and podcast.
