Jack Smith, with just a single sentence, today laid out the complexities of our criminal justice system and highlighted his personal integrity.
Smith emerged today to reveal the contents of the indictment issued against Donald J. Trump. The cascade of evidence looks — to my untrained eyes — like a slam-dunk case. If I could predict an outcome, it would be that Trump is going down … hard.
Not so fast, the Justice Department’s special counsel, said today.
Trump, Smith said, “is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”
So, there you have it summed up neatly in a single phrase uttered by a seasoned prosecutor who had been called to duty by Attorney General Merrick Garland. Smith’s wisdom highlights graphically how complicated our system is and how it must always be.
No matter how persuasive the evidence appears to be — and Smith’s 37-count indictment appears to be irrefutable — we have a judicial process that must run its course. Our Constitution provides a guarantee of the presumption of innocence, to which all U.S. citizens are entitled.
Donald Trump usually expresses outward fearlessness of anyone or anything. My own view of the former POTUS suggests he must be trembling in terror at the prospect of Jack Smith prosecuting this case against him.
Smith showed his ethical chops today by declaring his own understanding that in our system of jurisprudence, everyone is innocent until proven guilty.
The special counsel, therefore, has set a high bar for himself, which tells me he has every intention of clearing it.