Jack Smith leaves Senate grilling behind — turns up at anti-Trump festival in a ‘No Kings’ shirt

BS BULLETIN:

Former special counsel Jack Smith surfaced Saturday at the politically charged Power to the People Festival in Maryland.
Smith wore a Bruce Springsteen “No Kings” shirt just days after defending his Trump investigations before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl appeared to salute Smith from the stage, dedicating “My Hero” to his “new friend Jack.”

Former special counsel Jack Smith apparently had plans for the weekend after his bruising appearance on Capitol Hill: a concert, a “No Kings” shirt and a crowd filled with some of President Donald Trump’s most outspoken cultural critics.

Smith was photographed Saturday at the Power to the People Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, wearing a black Bruce Springsteen shirt emblazoned with the anti-Trump slogan “No Kings.”

The appearance came only four days after Smith testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about his investigations and prosecutions of Trump.

The festival was organized by Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello and featured Springsteen, Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews, Joan Baez, Killer Mike and others.

Smith attracted some attention of his own.

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl appeared to give the former prosecutor a shout-out before the band launched into “My Hero.”

“This one goes out to my new friend Jack!” Grohl told the crowd.

Photos circulating from the festival showed concertgoers posing with Smith.

Springsteen, meanwhile, used his appearance to continue his criticism of the Trump administration, including an attack on federal immigration enforcement before performing his protest song “Streets of Minneapolis.”

The festival itself made no secret of its political component. Organizers described the event as bringing artists, activists and community leaders together to promote collective action, including around Election Day. A portion of ticket proceeds was designated for VoteRiders, a voting-access organization.

That makes Smith’s wardrobe notable because his political impartiality was one of the central issues raised by Republican senators only days earlier.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Smith defended his investigations as evidence-driven and rejected Republican accusations that he had weaponized federal law enforcement against Trump and his political allies.

Sen. Ted Cruz accused Smith of succeeding “where Richard Nixon failed,” alleging that his investigations represented the weaponization of the Justice Department against political opponents.

Sen. John Kennedy also pressed Smith over investigators obtaining non-content phone records involving Republican lawmakers. Smith maintained that the records sought were relevant to the investigation and that his team followed the law.

Smith’s Saturday outing does not establish that his prosecutions were politically motivated. But appearing at an explicitly political festival in anti-Trump merchandise only days after publicly defending the neutrality of those investigations is certain to provide fresh ammunition to critics who have questioned his impartiality.

MY QUICK TAKE

This is one of those stories where the timing does most of the work.

Jack Smith spent Tuesday insisting that evidence — not politics — drove his prosecution of Donald Trump. By Saturday he’s photographed at a politically charged festival wearing “No Kings” across his chest while one of the bands apparently dedicates “My Hero” to him.

None of that retroactively proves anything about a federal prosecution. Personal political expression after leaving government is not evidence of prosecutorial misconduct.

But Washington has always understood the importance of appearances. Justice Department rules and traditions surrounding political activity exist precisely because prosecutors wield extraordinary power and public confidence in their neutrality matters.

Smith is no longer special counsel, so he can wear whatever shirt he wants. But after years of Republicans arguing that his Trump investigations were political, perhaps the “World’s Most Impartial Former Prosecutor” coffee mug would have been the subtler choice.