Former President Donald Trump had some holiday advice for Special Counsel Jack Smith that the partisan prosecutor most certainly will not want to hear or follow.
In a social media post on Tuesday, Trump told Smith to "go to HELL," which followed his Christmas Day message in which he instructed Smith and others arrayed against him to "ROT IN HELL," according to The Guardian.
Those messages come as Trump and Smith are locked in battle at the D.C. Circuit Court and U.S. Supreme Court levels over the former president's claim of immunity from prosecution as well as amid new allegations that Smith lacks any statutory authority to prosecute Trump and was illegally appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
On Tuesday, former President Trump took to his Truth Social account and wrote, "Biden’s Flunky, Deranged Jack Smith, should go to HELL. He is helping his Corrupt and Incompetent President to destroy America through Weaponization and ELECTION INTERFERENCE!"
"Smith is a Crooked Prosecutor who shouldn’t even be allowed to be in the position he is in -- It is Prosecutorial Misconduct. The Great Ed Meese from the Ronald Reagan Era has him figured perfectly!" he added.
Attached to Trump's post was a link to a Breitbart report that detailed a legal brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court by former Attorney General Edwin Meese III and a pair of constitutional law professors who challenged the legitimacy of Special Counsel Smith's appointment and purported prosecutorial authority.
In the amicus, or "friend of the court," brief filed by former AG Meese and the two professors, they argued that Congress never statutorily created the "Office of Special Counsel" to which "private citizen" Jack Smith was appointed in November 2022, and that even if the office was legitimate that AG Garland lacked the authority to make that appointment.
Instead, they continued, Smith's appointment to the powerful special counsel position would only be legal if the appointment had been made by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. In that way, U.S. attorneys who'd been lawfully nominated and confirmed by the president and Senate -- but not never-confirmed private citizens like Smith -- could be appropriately elevated to the special counsel position.
"What federal statutes and the Constitution do not allow, however, is for the Attorney General to appoint a private citizen, who has never been confirmed by the Senate, as a substitute United States Attorney under the title 'Special Counsel,'" the brief stated. "That is what happened on November 18, 2022. That appointment was unlawful, as are all the legal actions that have flowed from it, including citizen Smith’s current attempt to obtain a ruling from this Court."
In other words, if Smith's appointment was not lawfully made, then he lacks the prosecutorial authority he claims in his persecution of former President Trump as well as proper standing to petition the nation's highest court in support of the unconstitutional prosecution of the former president -- an argument that further applies to all lower court actions.
The implications of the argument, if accepted and applied by the Supreme Court, would seemingly result in Smith being stripped of all of his claimed prosecutorial authority plus the dismissal of all pending charges and motions and reversal of all prior court rulings in his favor.
Former President Trump's Truth Social post on Tuesday telling Special Counsel Smith to "go to HELL" came just one day after Trump posted a Christmas message in which he also told Smith and others to "rot in hell" on the otherwise joyous holiday.
Trump posted, "Merry Christmas to all, including Crooked Joe Biden’s ONLY HOPE, Deranged Jack Smith, the out of control Lunatic who just hired outside attorneys, fresh from the SWAMP (unprecedented!), to help him with his poorly executed WITCH HUNT against 'TRUMP' and 'MAGA.'"
"Included also are World Leaders, both good and bad, but none of which are as evil and 'sick' as the THUGS we have inside our Country who, with their Open Borders, INFLATION, Afghanistan Surrender, Green New Scam, High Taxes, No Energy Independence, Woke Military, Russia/Ukraine, Israel/Iran, All Electric Car Lunacy, and so much more, are looking to destroy our once great USA," he added. "MAY THEY ROT IN HELL. AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS!"
