Jack Smith scolds Trump for making Clinton ‘comparisons’ in Mar-a-Lago case

Published February 12, 2024 11:33am ET



The special counsel’s office on Sunday scolded Donald Trump over the former president’s plan to argue that he’s being prosecuted unfairly in his classified documents case, criticizing Trump’s attempts to “draw comparisons” between former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, among others.

Special counsel Jack Smith was replying in a court filing on Sunday to lawyers for Trump and his two co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, saying they “belatedly” and improperly raised their intention to file a “selective and vindictive prosecution” motion in a reply brief when they should have instead waited to address their new claims in a scheduled Feb. 22 motion the defendant plans to file.

Donald Trump and Jack Smith.
Donald Trump and Jack Smith. | AP

Trump on Friday used his latest reply memorandum to raise concerns about a “long list of similarly situated government officials not being charged with a crime in connection with allegations” related to the handling of classified information, according to a 37-page filing on Feb. 9. That filing came just one day after a separate special counsel announced that President Joe Biden had mishandled classified documents but would face no charges for doing so.

“Others include former President William Clinton, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former FBI Director James Comey,” Trump’s lawyers wrote, also mentioning the report by special counsel Robert Hur and his decision not to prosecute Biden for classified documents that were discovered at his Wilmington, Delaware, home.

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