Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty/Reuters
I never thought I would be saying that the Justice Department should have waited before charging former President Donald Trump but I’ll say it now: maybe they should have waited.
The reason for waiting would have been the fact that on Thursday – one week after Trump was charged in Florida–the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the decision in Smith v. United States, a case that decided whether the wrong choice of venue in a criminal case would not only be reversible error but also irreparable error–meaning that the case could not be re-tried in the correct venue.
In many ways, this decision is no surprise because, as the unanimous Supreme Court opinion stated, there is no reason to treat a mistake in venue any differently than any other violation of Constitutional rights – meaning it can be remedied. Per the Smith decision, a case that resulted in conviction but was brought in the wrong venue would have to be re-tried in the right place.