In this episode, I examine Jack Smith’s explosive congressional testimony—255 pages that should have ended a political career but were strategically buried on New Year’s Eve by Jim Jordan.
The special counsel’s December 17th testimony reveals the full scope of Donald Trump’s criminality in meticulous detail. The most chilling moment? Text messages among fake elector conspirators in Pennsylvania suggesting those asking for legal protections “should be shot” to prevent their concerns from spreading to other states. This wasn’t hyperbole—it was how Trump’s inner circle discussed managing their criminal enterprise.
Smith lays out proof beyond reasonable doubt that Trump orchestrated the January 6th attack, knowingly spread election fraud lies he’d been told were false, and endangered his own vice president’s life while refusing to stop the violence. The pattern was clear: Trump rejected any information suggesting he lost and embraced any theory, no matter how far-fetched, that could keep him in power.
The classified documents case was equally damning—highly sensitive national security materials stored in Mar-a-Lago bathrooms and ballrooms, followed by deliberate obstruction when investigators came calling.
Smith compares Trump’s scheme to an “affinity fraud”—exploiting the trust of supporters and party members the way Bernie Madoff exploited Jewish charities. We were “lucky,” Smith says, that enough officials refused to participate in the fraud.
But here’s the devastating reality: Despite overwhelming evidence, Trump escaped accountability. The Supreme Court invented presidential immunity doctrine. Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the documents case on dubious grounds. And Trump’s election victory triggered DOJ policy against prosecuting sitting presidents.
Smith warns that career prosecutors and FBI agents have been fired for doing their jobs, gutting the Justice Department’s ability to prosecute future public corruption. The American experiment’s foundational belief—that institutions are stronger than individuals, that power cannot decree its own immunity—died not because Smith failed, but because he succeeded in building an airtight case that ultimately didn’t matter.
As Smith testified: “There is no historical analog for what President Trump did in this case.” The article concludes with a sobering assessment: we are a nation that knows exactly what happened and has collectively decided to let it go. Lawlessness is no longer hypothetical—it’s upon us
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