Legal expert intrigued as Trump 'sounds pretty desperate' to bury Jack Smith's report
A former prosecutor reflected on President Donald Trump's first year in office and what he has attempted to hide.
Joyce Vance argued that it's time for the public to have more information about the Jeffrey Epstein files and the Mar-a-Lago case in her Substack Wednesday.
Trump has called on Florida federal Judge Aileen Cannon to block the Department of Justice report from special counsel Jack Smith and has acted in his "individual capacity" by filing a motion for Cannon to issue “an order prohibiting the release of Volume II of the Final Report prepared by so-called ‘Special Counsel’ Jack Smith and his office,” Vance wrote.
Vance pointed out that it sounds like Trump's own voice, using the term "so-called 'Special Counsel' Jack Smith," and said it was a move that attorneys should not allow their client to direct or even do.
"But apparently, Trump’s lawyer thinks she can get away with that, given who the judge is," Vance added.
The move from Trump and his legal team has revealed where the president's mindset falls.
"The bottom line is that Trump sounds pretty desperate to keep the special counsel’s report on the Mar-a-Lago indictment out of the hands of the public," Vance wrote. "'Release would also lead to the public dissemination of sensitive grand jury materials, attorney-client privileged information, and other information derived from protected discovery materials, raising significant statutory, due process, and privacy concerns for President Trump and his former co-defendants.'”
"It’s a consistent theme with this President. There is so much to hide, so much to keep out of the public domain. Like the Epstein Files. Like the Mar-a-Lago case," Vance wrote.
Vance urged Congress "to push full throttle to enforce the Transparency Act it passed," and argued that Trump has tried to conceal something.
"There should be calls every day for release of Epstein-related materials with reminders that DOJ is ignoring the law and that there is too much information pointing to the connection between Epstein and Trump to ignore," Vance wrote. "The fact that Trump is hoping to Venezuela and Greenland his way out of that quagmire suggests how important it is for us to continue to pursue the truth."
Vance explained that it's likely that it would ultimately be up to the legal system.
"When it comes to Mar-a-Lago, the government is almost certain to go belly up on making the special counsel report public out of deference to Trump," Vance wrote. "But it should be possible for other parties to pursue the matter in court. While any request is likely to fall on deaf ears before Judge Cannon, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has been a less friendly venue for the President. Special Counsel reports are routinely released at the end of the investigation, and particularly here, where an indictment was dismissed, not because it was found wanting, but because Trump was elected a second time, the public has a right to know."