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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
Special Counsel Jack Smith may be winding down his investigation into whether former President Donald Trump’s campaign defrauded investors by making false election claims following the 2020 race against now-President Joe Biden.
Smith’s team has “quietly withdrawn a subpoena seeking records from” Trump’s 2020 campaign “as part of their investigation into whether Mr. Trump’s political and fund-raising operations committed any crimes as he sought to stay in power after he lost the election,” two sources told The New York Times.
The outlet continued, “The office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, decided this week to effectively kill the subpoena to the Trump campaign following the withdrawal of a similar subpoena to Save America, the political action committee that Mr. Trump’s aides formed shortly after he lost the race in 2020.
The Times went on to report that rescinding the subpoenas to Donald J. Trump for President Inc. and Save America is indicative of Smith’s office winding down or even closing out the investigation into whether Trump broke any laws with claims of a stolen election in order to raise money. The Time added that the decision to withdraw the subpoena to Save America was first reported by the Washington Post last week.
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The Times said that Trump’s political operation raised nearly $250 million off of claims that the 2020 election was stolen — claims that were never proven to be accurate.
“Trump’s team has long maintained that the financial inquiry by Mr. Smith’s office would struggle to yield any charges. Political fund-raising materials often engage in bombast or exaggeration, and a fine line exists between criminal behavior and solicitations protected by the First Amendment,” The Times noted.
According to the Post, Smith is reducing the number of subpoenas he issued in an attempt to learn whether or not Trump tried to profit from spreading false rumors that Joe Biden stole the 2020 election.
According to two sources familiar with the situation, Smith’s demand was dropped while Save America was in the midst of compiling responsive documents. Representatives for both Save America and the Office of the Special Counsel were unavailable for comment.
While it is not uncommon for federal investigations to have a wide scope, Smith’s apparent hesitation to reopen the case suggests he is growing wary of allegations that he pressured state officials to accept slates of alternate delegates and challenged the tabulation of votes by voting machines, all of which involve President Trump and his powerful fundraising machine. Save America is not named as a co-conspirator in the original indictment against President Trump.
Meanwhile, the federal judge overseeing Trump’s classified documents case handed Smith and his team another setback on Tuesday.
Smith and his prosecutors had requested to keep documents seized during the FBI’s August 2022 raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in a private facility outside of the Florida district where the case was filed, but U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, whom Trump appointed, refused to allow it.
Cannon ordered Smith to share the documents in a location convenient for Trump’s legal time, within the South Florida district.
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“The parties are advised the production of classified discovery to defense counsel is deemed timely upon placement in an accredited facility in the Southern District of Florida, not in another federal district,” Cannon wrote. “It is the responsibility of the Office of the Special Counsel to make and carry out arrangements to deposit such discovery to defense counsel in this District.”
The ruling is another that is favorable to Trump as it builds on a previous decision over the summer denying Smith’s request to hide his list of 84 witnesses from Trump’s legal team. Smith had argued that Trump’s frequent critique of his court cases in public and on social media would prejudice or intimidate those witnesses who could see their names made public.