Editorials & Other Articles

Mother Jones’ David Corn was first to report that in early March, federal prosecutors “quietly filed an unusual brief … supporting Smirnov’s attempt to throw out his sentence and withdraw his guilty plea.” The Wall Street Journal published a related report this week, highlighting steps Trump’s DOJ has taken to align itself with Smirnov’s defense lawyers. From the article:

In a federal courthouse in Los Angeles last spring, Judge Otis Wright II, a no-nonsense former Marine, was baffled by what he was hearing from the prosecutor before him. … The department was joining Smirnov’s defense lawyers in seeking his release while he appealed the six-year prison sentence that Wright had issued earlier that year.

‘Seriously?’ said Judge Wright, a nearly 20-year veteran of the court appointed by President George W. Bush. ‘At this stage, the government is taking a look at this case anew?’

‘Correct,’ [prosecutor Robert Keenan] said.

A lawyer for Smirnov, who wants to undo his guilty plea, confirmed on the record that, as things stand, the DOJ and the convicted felon are now “in complete agreement.”.....

The Republicans’ entire “bribery” conspiracy theory was based on the claims of one man — who was sent to a prison cell, in part because he lied to the FBI about the Bidens.

To make matters worse, the Republican Party’s anti-Biden witness, after getting indicted, conceded to prosecutors that some of the false information he spread came from “officials associated with Russian intelligence.”

Nevertheless, one year ago this week, Trump’s DOJ said it would revisit its case against the convicted felon. Now, Trump-aligned prosecutors want Smirnov to go free while he asks a federal appeals court to let Smirnov withdraw his guilty pleas.....

Since the incumbent Republican president returned to power, we’ve seen too many instances in which pro-Trump criminals have been rewarded, but there’s a related lesson that’s just as important: Anti-Democrat criminals apparently get rewards from Trump’s DOJ, too.