Jack Smith spent years telling the country that his pursuit of Donald Trump was about the law, not politics.
Then the former special counsel turned up at a star-studded anti-Trump music festival in Maryland wearing a Bruce Springsteen “No Kings” shirt.
That is a choice. And President Trump noticed.
Video circulating from Saturday night showed Smith in the crowd at the inaugural “Power to the People” festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion:
The event was billed as a celebration of music, civic action and voter participation. Its lineup included Springsteen, Foo Fighters, John Legend, Dave Matthews, the Chicks and Public Enemy, with Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello serving as organizer.
But there was nothing politically mysterious about the evening.
The Associated Press reported that Springsteen headlined the inaugural event at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, after Morello organized a bill that also included Foo Fighters, John Legend, Dave Matthews, the Chicks, Public Enemy and other prominent performers; organizers described the mission as peace, justice, solidarity, music and community action, while a portion of ticket proceeds went to VoteRiders and HeadCount. The politics were just as clear from the stage and across the packed amphitheater that Saturday night, with the event arriving one month before Election Day and deliberately connecting celebrity performances to political organizing: Springsteen opened with “Streets of Minneapolis,” a protest song targeting federal immigration enforcement, Grandson performed “My President’s a Felon,” and the crowd was repeatedly urged to turn its energy into votes before the midterm elections.
The crowd did not have to decode the message. The night was designed to move people from applause to political action.
Fox News detailed the activist network surrounding the festival, including partner organizations mobilizing voters ahead of Election Day and a VIP program whose proceeds were directed to nonprofits focused on human rights and social justice; the report also noted that Ben & Jerry’s and several advocacy groups were promoted as community partners. Morello made the event’s posture explicit from the stage by attacking “dictators” and “oligarchs,” while Springsteen continued the anti-Trump message that has defined his recent political appearances, leaving little daylight between the night’s entertainment and its election-year purpose.
Smith did not blend into the audience. He wore a “No Kings” shirt from Springsteen’s merchandise line—a slogan that has become a rallying cry of the anti-Trump protest movement.
The choice quickly became the story:
Smith is a private citizen. He has every right to attend a concert, buy a shirt and make his politics visible.
But the optics are impossible to dismiss.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith in November 2022 to oversee two investigations of Trump. At the time, the Justice Department said the appointment would protect the work’s independence and described Smith as the person to handle the cases in an “even-handed” manner.
Smith went on to bring two federal criminal cases against Trump—one concerning classified documents and another concerning the 2020 election. Those cases consumed years of national attention and helped define the 2024 campaign.
They were ultimately abandoned after Trump won the election and returned to the White House.
Throughout it all, Americans were repeatedly told to trust the institutional separation between prosecution and politics, even as the cases reached directly into a presidential election.
That trust was already badly damaged. A former special counsel publicly adopting the visual language of the movement opposing the man he prosecuted does not repair it.
Trump responded Sunday morning by sharing coverage of Smith’s appearance and reviving his familiar charge that Smith was a politically motivated prosecutor:
None of this proves that Smith made a dishonest decision inside the special counsel’s office. That claim would require evidence far beyond a concert appearance.
What it does prove is that the public’s skepticism was never irrational.
Prosecutors entrusted with extraordinary power must avoid bias and guard the appearance of impartiality—especially when the target is a presidential candidate and the cases can alter the course of an election.
Smith knew the stakes. He also knew exactly what “No Kings” meant in that room.
He made his statement anyway.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
The post Jack Smith Turns Up at Star-Studded Anti-Trump Festival — President Trump Notices appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.
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[H/T 100PercentFedUp]
