An ex-attorney for former President Donald Trump says that the federal government's criminal case against Trump "may never get to a trial" due to the "misconduct" of special counsel Jack Smith.
The former Trump attorney is Timothy Parlatore, and he made this remark during a recent appearance on the Fox News Channel's The Ingraham Angle.
Parlatore's Fox appearance came after Smith indicted Trump for Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House.
Smith has charged Trump with 37 counts of wrongdoing, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, a scheme to conceal, and false statements.
Trump has already been arraigned, and he has pled not guilty to the charges. Trump maintains that he has done nothing wrong and that Smith's investigation of him is politically motivated and designed to upend Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.
Smith is the special counsel appointed by U.S. Attorney Merrick Garland to investigate, among other things, Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Smith has many ties to the Democratic Party, particularly through his wife, Katy Chevigny.
Chevigny has donated to President Joe Biden on multiple occasions, and she produced the Michelle Obama documentary Becoming. Smith, himself, also has ties to the Obama administration: He was a prosecutor for the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ).
Parlatore, however, is calling attention to other, perhaps even more troubling, issues with Smith - issues other than Smith's apparent political bias.
During his Fox appearance, Parlatore alleged that Smith, in the prosecution of Trump, has already engaged in "misconduct," particularly during the grand jury proceeding. Parlatore knows this because he was there as a witness.
Parlatore said:
45 separate times. I can't make that number up. I actually counted, 45 separate times, they asked me about my conversations with my client, and at one point we kept getting into this fight because they kept implying, "Oh, you're keeping this from the grand jury. You won't let them know this." No, the ethics rules prohibit me from saying this...
These are only part of the dubious tactics that Smith's team used during the grand jury proceeding, according to Parlatore. But, in Parlatore's view, this may be enough to stop Smith's case from going forward.
"I believe this case, there's going to be serious litigation in the pretrial stage over prosecutorial misconduct by this team, which could entirely upend this case," Parlatore said.
He added, "We may never get to a trial, we may never actually have to address any of the substantive issues because of the misconduct of Jack Smith and his team."
