Will Scharf, former President Donald Trump's attorney, told Newsmax on Monday that special counsel Jack Smith has repeatedly stressed the need to bring the cases against the former president to trial quickly.
Given the presidential election in November, Scharf said that hastening the proceedings creates bad optics for Smith's team.
"The special counsel's office has said in court pleadings over and over and over again that there is a supposed public need in getting this case to trial before the 2024 election," Scharf said during an appearance on "Wake Up America." "Now, I used to be a federal prosecutor; we were trained that prosecutions are never supposed to be dictated by a political timeline, that they're never even supposed to appear political.
"What we've seen consistently from the special counsel's office is the exact opposite of that. That everything to them is political and everything is being dictated by the political timeline here, not by any sort of reasonable legal timeline and that should outrage all Americans."
Scharf said Trump’s team feels "very good" about his presidential immunity case that’s currently before the Supreme Court. A decision is expected in that case by early July.
"There are a lot of big issues that the Supreme Court still has outstanding," he said. "So, one way or the other, I think we're going to have a blockbuster end to the Supreme Court term in the next week."
When asked to speculate on how the high court might rule, Scharf said, "We think the Supreme Court is likely to recognize that the president does have some immunity from prosecution for his official acts in office."
"The exact scope and extent of that, we'll see," he said. "But, one way or the other, we think that it's highly unlikely that this D.C. case will make it to trial of any sort, if it survives at all prior to the November 2024 election. So, in terms of the Biden administration's efforts to use this campaign of lawfare to interfere with the 2024 election, at least in that respect, we feel very good."
The Trump attorney also said that he agreed with disgraced former New York Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo that the former president was being dragged through the courts because he is running for president this year.
"I never thought these words would cross my mouth, but Andrew Cuomo is exactly right," Scharf said. "I mean, all of these cases, none of them would have been brought if President Trump weren't running for president, if he weren't, frankly, the leading candidate for president.
"That's a perversion of our justice system. That's a perversion of our courts, of the rule of law. And I think it's great that even some folks on the left are calling a spade a spade and condemning this blatant weaponization of our legal system."
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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