“F***ing Insane”: The Move That Ruined Jack Smith’s Case Against Trump

The fatal flaw in the criminal cases against Donald Trump: credibility.

Ex-special prosecutor Jack Smith’s legal team was expecting to file the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case in the nation’s capital. But in an attempt to play the case by the book, Smith surprised them by opting to file in Florida instead, where the case would have a one in six chance of landing in Judge Aileen Cannon’s courtroom, reported The Washington Post’s Carol Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis in their book, Injustice.

“Are you all fucking insane?” David Raskin, a federal prosecutor who had worked on the case, blurted out in a Justice Department hallway at the time, according to the Post.

Smith believed then that filing in Florida could place the case on firmer legal footing, reducing the possibility that the most egregious charges could be overturned down the line. Smith further trusted that even if the case was randomly assigned to Cannon, they would be able to prove Trump was guilty by sheer volume of evidence.

“I’m not worried about Florida,” Smith told Justice Department officials while presenting his decision.

Instead, once the case was in her hands, Cannon blatantly took steps to drag it out and turn the tide in Trump’s favor.

A year on, the decision to bring the case to Cannon’s doorstep has been interpreted as the case’s death knell. The quest to bring Trump to justice for his alleged crimes disintegrated by election night 2024, by which point the MAGA leader had managed to transform the myriad cases against him into supposed evidence that he was being unfairly prosecuted by a Democratic presidential administration and its DOJ.

Trump has since rejiggered the Justice Department in his image, leveraging its heft to prosecute his own perceived political enemies, including New York Attorney General Letitia James and former special counsel James Comey. His next target is California Senator Adam Schiff.

Smith has also become the subject of conservative-centric controversies. Republican lawmakers accused the former special prosecutor earlier this month of spying on them during his investigation of Trump, claiming Smith tapped their phone lines and monitored their phone calls. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley dubbed the right-wing scandal “worse than Watergate.”

Smith and his team have vehemently denied those allegations, clarifying in a letter that they obtained telephone toll records, which only contain information pertaining to incoming and outgoing phone numbers and call duration. They do not contain any details of a call’s contents.

Smith conducted two parallel investigations into Trump, both of which resulted in indictments. They centered on allegations that Trump mishandled and retained classified records after the end of his first presidential term, and his alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election. Trump pleaded not guilty on all charges before the charges were dropped altogether after the 2024 election due to Justice Department policy that prevents the prosecution of a sitting president.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, seemingly at the behest of the vehemently Islamaphobic Laura Loomer, has detained well-known British Muslim journalist Sami Hamdi in the middle of his U.S. speaking tour because he is critical of Israel. 

Hamdi was taken by ICE on Sunday at San Francisco International Airport, just a few hours after speaking at a Council for American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, gala. He is the managing director at The International Interest, an organization that “advises on geopolitical environments and risks across the globe,” according to its website. 

“Thanks to the work of [Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem] and [Secretary of State Marco Rubio] and the men and women of law enforcement, this individual’s visa was revoked and he is in ICE custody pending removal,” wrote Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. “Under President Trump, those who support terrorism and undermine American national security will not be allowed to work or visit this country.”

CAIR put out a very different statement. 

“Abducting a prominent British Muslim journalist and political commentator on a speaking tour in the United States because he dared to criticize the Israeli government’s genocide is a blatant affront to free speech,” the organization wrote. “Our nation must stop abducting critics of the Israeli government at the behest of unhinged Israel First bigots. This is an Israel First policy, not an America First policy, and it must end.”

Loomer, an informal Trump adviser, took credit for Hamdi’s detainment, as she was posting obsessively about him for days prior to his arrest—calling Hamdi a Muslim Brotherhood jihadist who supports Hamas. 

“This is not a ‘commentator.’ This is not a ‘guest speaker.’ This is a foreign agitator embedded in jihadist power networks—operating on U.S. soil and training U.S. activists overseas outside the reach of American law-enforcement,” Loomer wrote Sunday on X. “Let this serve as a warning to every jihadi operative, every Brotherhood front, and every Marxist collaborator using America as a staging ground: We are no longer just exposing you—we are forcing consequences.” 

Loomer posted a video of Hamdi speaking positively about armed Palestinian resistance on October 7, while speaking vehemently against Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians. 

“Netanyahu did not envisage that for the first time since 1948 … Palestinians would actually retake land back from the Israelis … that Palestinians would be able to hold those territories for more than 72 hours,” he said in the video. “Celebrate the victory. Allah has shown the world that no normalization can erase the Palestinian cause.”  

Loomer, without proof, also claimed that Hamdi has ambiguous ties to New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, who has received a massive amount of hate as the potential first Muslim mayor of NYC. 

It’s telling that the White House seems to be following the marching orders of a woman who quite literally hates Muslims for a living. Hamdi’s detainment is in the same vein as those of Mahmoud Khalil, Rümeysa Öztürk, and Mohsen Mahdawi. It’s clear that anyone who dares speak ill of Israel—especially those of Arab or Muslim descent—are at risk of being attacked, muzzled, and deported. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson is taking playing dumb to a whole new level.

During a press conference Monday to highlight the so-called “Democrat Shutdown,” Johnson went so far as to claim that Republicans, who control the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives, weren’t the ones running the government.

“The Democrats are required to open the government. They keep saying the Republicans are in charge of government. We aren’t—not in the Senate!” Johnson said. “Sixty votes control the Senate. Not a bare majority.”

With the government shutdown entering its fourth week, Johnson has turned playing dumb into an art form as he abstains from actually leading his party. During his daily delivery of remarks to the press, Johnson has incessantly insisted he hasn’t heard about anything bad his government has done while running a deluded defense of President Donald Trump’s administration.

On Monday, Johnson also claimed that cutting trillions of funds to Medicaid had actually “strengthened” the program. Meanwhile, Republicans have repeatedly refused to guarantee the continuance of essential Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year.

Johnson also doubled down on the Trump administration’s latest excuse for not providing funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, starting in November—despite previous USDA guidance. “I got a summary of the whole legal analysis, and it certainly looks legitimate to me,” he said, claiming that contingency funds would require a trade-off for school lunches and infant formula.

The speaker has used the government shutdown to banish Republican lawmakers back to their districts for an extended vacation, where Johnson claimed Monday they were doing “some of the most meaningful work of their careers.” Crucially, the speaker has also used the government shutdown as an excuse not to swear in a duly elected Democrat from Arizona, who is poised to deliver the final signature on a petition to force a vote on releasing the government files on Jeffrey Epstein.

Donald Trump hasn’t ruled out giving more money to Argentina, he told reporters on Air Force One on Monday.

The president claimed that the country’s midterm election results on Sunday, which went very well for right-wing President Javier Milei, are good for the United States because bonds have gone up, making “a lot of money for the United States.” When a reporter asked if Argentina would need “more support,” referring to the president’s $40 billion bailout of the country, Trump replied in the affirmative.

“They might. Yeah, we would consider it,” Trump said.

Trump’s comments come as SNAP funding is set to expire in five days thanks to the government shutdown, with millions of Americans expected to lose food stamps across the country. Health care subsidies are also on the verge of expiring in the U.S., causing health insurance premiums to skyrocket for millions of Americans.

Meanwhile, the up to $40 billion bailout for Argentina that Trump has already approved benefited major hedge funds, including BlackRock, Fidelity, and Pimco, as well as Robert Citrone, a close friend of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent who founded the hedge fund Discovery Capital Management.

Thus, when Trump brags that Argentina’s right-wing government is making money for the U.S., he’s not referring to the average American struggling to make ends meet, but rather financial executives and hedge funds. But Trump never was too worried about how the average American is doing.

Donald Trump is economically punishing Canada (and the American public) for daring to televise Ronald Reagan’s position on tariffs.

The president announced Saturday that America’s northern neighbor would literally pay for Ontario’s decision to air portions of one of Reagan’s 1987 radio addresses, in which the conservative icon argued that tariffs undermine economic prosperity and only serve to “hurt every American.” The 35 percent tariff on Canadian goods would increase by at least 10 percent, Trump said.

The advert really irked Trump, who claimed that the very real speech was a “fake.” Trump also cited the advertisement as his reason for canceling trade talks with Canada and then deciding to actually impose more levies on America’s Hat as recompense for the stunt.

“Canada was caught, red handed, putting up a fraudulent advertisement on Ronald Reagan’s Speech on Tariffs,” Trump posted to Truth Social. “The Reagan Foundation said that they, ‘created an ad campaign using selective audio and video of President Ronald Reagan. The ad misrepresents the Presidential Radio Address,’ and ‘did not seek nor receive permission to use and edit the remarks. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute is reviewing its legal options in this matter.’

“The sole purpose of this FRAUD was Canada’s hope that the United States Supreme Court will come to their ‘rescue’ on Tariffs that they have used for years to hurt the United States. Now the United States is able to defend itself against high and overbearing Canadian Tariffs (and those from the rest of the World as well!).”

While the ad stitched together some of Reagan’s quotes from different parts of the speech, none of the soundbites used in the ad were made up. In fact, the speech in its entirety reveals Reagan was much harsher on tariffs than the ad made him out to be.

The ad was developed by Ontario’s provincial government. The goal of the ad, per Ontario Premier Doug Ford, was to reach as many Americans as possible. After a conversation with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Ford announced the decision to pull the ad, which will officially stop airing on Monday.

But ultimately, Trump doesn’t appear able to grapple with the reality that his Republican hero considered his favorite economic stratagem a total dud.

“Ronald Reagan LOVED Tariffs for purposes of National Security and the Economy, but Canada said he didn’t!” Trump continued in his post. “Their Advertisement was to be taken down, IMMEDIATELY, but they let it run last night during the World Series, knowing that it was a FRAUD. Because of their serious misrepresentation of the facts, and hostile act, I am increasing the Tariff on Canada by 10 percent over and above what they are paying now.”

Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One Monday, Trump said he had no interest in meeting with Carney to resolve the matter, further elaborating that he wouldn’t be meeting with Carney “for a while.”