The Daily Beast has a detailed article about how special counsel Smith’s previous work in the Public Integrity section of the DOJ is likely to resurface in Republican efforts to discredit his investigation into Donald Trump. It started when Smith “was taken aback by the way nonprofits, formed as tax-exempt groups under the IRS code, were abusing the system with unchecked spending and secret donors.”
In particular, Smith focused on a 501(c)(4) non-profit, called Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies.
It’s against the rules for a 501(c)(4) organization to spend more than 50 percent of its activities on political work. But in reading [a New York] Times article, Smith saw how Crossroads had clearly crossed a line: A bunch of Republican operatives were running the group, former President George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove was helping it raise cash, and it was spending millions to rip into Democrats on TV commercials.
Smith wanted to investigate and worked on a plan to do so. But here’s the important part: It was a thorny issue and “Smith’s team actually failed to take any law enforcement action against rogue nonprofits,” The Daily Beast notes.
But here’s the other important part: “At public hearings, Republicans conflated Smith’s initial DOJ review of law enforcement options with the IRS screwup that tied up Tea Party nonprofit applications with red tape.” Remember the GOP howling over Lois Lerner?
C&L covered all that back in the day, including the part about there being no wrongdoing found. But Republicans care about Fox News hits and power, not facts or Trump treason. So, there’s every reason to believe this non-scandal will be dredged up for maximum right-wing TV propaganda.
Actually, Rep. Jim Jordan started the drumbeat of disingenuous poutrage back in November. C&L reported that during a Fox News chat with conspiracy-theorist extraordinaire, Maria Bartiromo, Jordan called Smith “the lead person at the Justice Department looking for ways to target and prosecute the very people Lois Lerner went after.”
Jordan, now chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has demanded that Attorney General Merrick Garland release the details of his appointment of Smith as special counsel investigating Trump, The Daily Beast reported.
Not surprisingly, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene couldn’t resist butting her nose into the matter, even though she does not sit on the Judiciary Committee and she has no law degree. She’s “threatening to introduce a bill that would defund Smith’s office to kneecap the Trump investigations,” according to The Daily Beast.
The legislative maneuvering is unlikely to work, The Daily Beast says. But Fox News and Newsmax won’t care that it’s all performative BS. Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Maria Bartiromo will lap it all up and just ignore how Bret Baier and Bill Barr have all but destroyed Trump’s claims to have done nothing wrong when he stole, hid and hoarded classified documents and showed them to God-knows-whom.
Even if Trump’s candidacy implodes, the MAGA crowd will continue screaming about a “corrupt DOJ.” They’ll use it as part of their plan to sabotage the DOJ, use it against President Biden in the 2024 election and to purge the department of non-loyalists if, God forbid, any of them win the presidency next year.
