Jack Smith Compares Himself to a Saint in Court Brief Against Trump: Report
Humility is a virtue. By definition, saints are virtuous. Special counsel Jack Smith — the government agent whose apparent job is to prevent Donald Trump from once again becoming president by whatever means he has — is not humble. For that reason — and many, many more — he can’t be a saint.
That didn’t stop Smith from likening himself to the medieval Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas à Becket, who was officially sainted by Pope Alexander III in 1173, according to the British Museum. Maybe Pope Francis — the deliciously progressive pontiff of our day — will deem Smith saintworthy. Anything’s possible in 2023 it seems.
Becket was mentioned in Smith’s latest brief to the District of Columbia Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals, according to The Sun. The brief requested a gag order on former President Donald Trump.
For the record, Trump is no saint either. If he had an ounce of humility at his disposal, he’d use it to keep his foot out of his mouth every now and then. His mouth undoubtedly gets him into trouble periodically, but it also makes him immensely popular in his MAGA base.
And this is important to note: Trump’s not running for sainthood. He’s running for president.
According to Newsweek, Smith’s office “asked an appeals court to impose a gag order on Donald Trump after he attacked special counsel Jack Smith and his family in a speech last week.”
Trump is quite well-known for his fiery rhetoric. Insulting people like Smith is nothing new. Judge Arthur Engoron, who is seeking to muzzle Trump too, has been on the wrong end of Trump’s ire. Trump has called Engoron and his staff a lot of things on Truth Social, including “radical” and “Trump Hating” — and those are the tamer jabs.
Smith’s filed brief cited King Henry II of England’s ostensible remarks that prompted four of his knights to kill the Archbishop of Canterbury, according to The Sun.
“Repeated attacks are often understood as a signal to act—just as King Henry II’s remark, ‘Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?’ resulted in Thomas à Becket’s murder.”
Henry II’s question, “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?” supposedly prompted four knights to travel from Normandy to Canterbury to kill Becket. The king’s proclamation wasn’t a direct order as much as a rhetorical question.
“Knights loyal to the king will rid the king of the priest,” is the answer.
Henry had a long-running feud with Becket and Henry had Becket indirectly killed, as the story goes. Two years after Becket was murdered, he was canonized. Becket’s martyrdom inspired everything from Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” to T.S. Eliot’s drama, “Murder in the Cathedral.”
Smith, who appears to think of himself as a towering figure in world history, sees himself as an equal to Saint Thomas Becket. Becket’s name appears on churches all over the world. Smith would see his name enshrined in works of world-class literature, on federal courthouses and — if only he could — memorialized by statues attesting his genius world over.
Trump has suggested the special counsel will end up in a mental institution “by the time my next term as President is successfully completed,” according to The Sun. At a recent rally, Trump called Smith “deranged” and a “Trump-hating prosecutor.” He even went so far as to say the special counsel’s “wife and family despise me much more than he does.”
Smith used the example of a woman who sent Judge Chutkan voice messages promising to “kill anyone who went after former President Trump,” in an effort to get a gag order reinstated. Smith wants the D.C. Circuit to uphold Judge Tanya Chutkan’s previous gag order, which was paused pending this appeal.
If the previous gag order is reinstated on the appeal, Trump will have to watch his mouth up to and during the trial scheduled for March 4. Chutkan has already threatened Trump with sanctions — which could include prison time –if the gag order is violated. It might prove to be a lesson in humility for Trump.
On the other hand, if the gag order goes through, it will be like putting Trump’s mouth in prison before there has been any actual crime committed. It’s like putting someone in prison for saying he is planning on robbing Ft. Knox. Punishment before a crime is committed is the stuff of science fiction.
Jack Smith is a would-be Judge Dredd.
Trump is running for president. The attempts to silence him have nothing to do with medieval history or Catholic saints. They are blatant attempts at election interference. These are acts of hubris. If they are allowed, Smith and company will have challenged the Constitution’s guarantee of free speech and won.
That will be historic — and for all the wrong reasons.
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