Top Republican demands ethics investigation into special counsel Jack Smith for trying to meddle with the election by speeding up Trump's January 6 trial

The number 3 House Republican is demanding an ethics probe into special counsel Jack Smith for 'abusing the resources of the federal government to unlawfully interfere with the 2024 presidential election.' 

GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik is saying the special counsel 'is attempting to expedite the trial in order to influence the general election in November.'

In a letter to DOJ's watchdog, she notes that in August 2023 Smith petitioned to hold the trial for the case in January 2024, despite Trump having 'thirteen million pages' of documents to review plus 'thousands of hours' of footage. 

In a letter to Jeffrey Ragsdale, counsel for the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik claimed the special counsel 'is attempting to expedite the trial in order to influence the general election in November'

Stefanik reasoned:

'Prosecutors bringing a case of this complexity – with so many consequential and novel legal issues to sort out – would normally never seek to bring it to trial within five months.'

'The only reason to push for such an early trial date was to work to get the case tried before the November election, and the Justice Department Manual clearly forbids Jack Smith from taking any action on that basis.' 

Attorneys for Trump and Smith made their arguments before the Supreme Court last week in the monumental case over whether a president has absolute immunity from prosecution.

The January 6 trial was supposed to start in March of this year. Proceedings have been halted as Trump pursues claims of immunity from prosecution for any charges touching his official acts.

Trump isn't likely to get total immunity but conservative justices seemed to want to provide some legal safeguards to protect Trump and future presidents from political prosecution. 

The high court is expected to rule in the immunity case before the end of June. 

A Florida court, meanwhile, has yet to rule on Trump's motion to dismiss the classified documents case for claims that he was improperly appointed.  

Trump is facing four criminal cases - two of which are spearheaded by Smith: charges related to the January 6 Capitol riot and Trump's mishandling of classified documents. 

Smith moved quickly to advance the investigations, forming a team of at least 20 DOJ prosecutors, calling witnesses for grand jury testimony and subpoenaing election officials across different states. 

This week Trump has been in court in New York for the hush money trial with Stormy Daniels for paying the porn star $130,000. Prosecutors accuse Trump of an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 presidential campaign by burying negative stories.