Special counsel Jack Smith could have a "hard time" trying to charge former President Donald Trump with obstruction of Congress after the Supreme Court's ruling making it harder to charge Capitol riot defendants with obstruction, former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said on Newsmax Sunday.
Further, Whitaker told Newsmax's "Wake Up America Weekend" that federal Judge Tanya Chutkan, the federal judge overseeing Trump's prosecution on charges of plotting to overturn his 2020 election results, would lose "two of the four charges with this."
But as far as the aproxmately 50 Jan. 6, 2021, defendants who have been convicted of obstruction, some have already waived their right to an appeal, but Whitaker said he expects a "wave" of such charges being changed.
Meanwhile, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the majority ruling in the case, and Whitaker said that despite her being a nominee from President Joe Biden, she could make several such rulings in cases.
"[She] is a social justice activist," said Whitaker. "So she has a lot of sympathy on these criminal cases to curtail the power of government and prosecutors and on some of these statutes that I think are oftentimes overbroad and misapplied."
With the ruling, there will be about 50 people who have only been charged with obstruction who will see their cases dismissed, retried on different charges, or completely exonerated, said Whitaker.
And in Trump's case, "there are some arguments that I've heard that suggest this somehow, he was charged with a different prong," he added. "I think you're going to see, Donald Trump's case be a little different."
Meanwhile, the court's ruling on Trump's immunity from facing charges is expected Monday, and Whitaker said that while it may appear the case is taking a long time to decide, that's not the issue.
"They took it on an expedited manner [and] scheduled a hearing within a month of getting the matter," said Whitaker. "The Supreme Court does not work fast. That's very deliberate and they understand the historical precedent and historical context that they find themselves in with this case."
Meanwhile, if the court follows the precedent from the Nixon era, "they're going to have to parse out what is an official act and what is a personal act of the president of the United States," he said. "Jack Smith didn't break that out in his indictment, so I could see a scenario where they lay out a black letter rule under the law, and then they send it back to [Chutkan] to figure out which one's which."
Whitaker also discussed the pending classified documents case against Trump in Florida, after Judge Aileen Cannon earlier this week rejected a challenge from Trump's lawyers about the legitimacy of the warrant in the case.
However, she scheduled a new hearing to consider other objections that Trump has raised, and Whitaker said that despite the left trying to paint her as a bad judge or saying that she's helping Trump, she's "done a very good job of administering a very complicated case involving classified documents."
Cannon will also hear an argument concerning the selective prosecution of Trump, considering Biden was not charged with possession of documents after special counsel Robert Hur's report expressing doubts about his mental acuity and memory issues, said Whitaker.
"I think Judge Cannon is trying to sort through all the arguments and make sure that the defendant is treated fairly, and that all of the arguments are well considered," he said.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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