Trump’s Latest Rant About Imminent Trials Has Strange Twist: ‘Jack Smith Will Never Be Coach Bobby Knight’

(AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Former President Donald Trump added a new twist to his recent harangues against the Biden administration’s Department of Justice: He referenced legendary college basketball coach Bobby Knight, who was his political ally until his death.

Regular observers of Trump’s social media missives are familiar with the same hackneyed take, day in and day out: He’s a victim of a weaponized justice system eager to take out a political opponent, yada yada yada.

On Thursday, however, the former president started out by calling out “Crooked Joe Biden and his crew of Hacks and Thugs, led by Merrick Garland and Deranged Jack Smith,” but then pivoted to the Special Counsel’s recent filings, which Trump falsely claimed were illegal attempts to “intimidate and harass respected Federal Judge Aileen Cannon,” the federal judge — that he appointed — overseeing the classified documents case.

Smith and his team have been at odds with Cannon over a host of issues, and critics of the judge have suggested she is slowing the case in order to benefit the man who appointed her.

That frustration was evident in Smith’s response to an order by Cannon to submit proposed jury instructions that consider “competing scenarios and offer alternative draft text that assumes each scenario to be a correct formulation of the law to be issued to the jury” — scenarios Smith says are fatally flawed.

In Trump’s eyes, he is trying to “play the refs,” which is where Coach Knight comes into the picture. “No matter how hard he tries, Deranged Jack Smith will never be Coach Bobby Knight, a Basketball Legend for all time, who led the last undefeated team in College Basketball,” Trump wrote, incorrectly crediting Knight — as South Carolina coach Dawn Staley just completed an undefeated season last Sunday.

Trump posted on Truth Social:

Crooked Joe Biden and his crew of Hacks and Thugs, led by Merrick Garland and Deranged Jack Smith, are working overtime to try to illegally intimidate and harass respected Federal Judge Aileen Cannon. They are calling her terrible names, wrongfully threatening her with Impeachment, and disrespecting her, all because they want her to act like the dishonest, politically biased, and conflicted Judges in New York, and not like the fair and impartial Judge that she is. These Persecutors are using Third World tactics in a corrupt ploy to “play the ref.” However, no matter how hard he tries, Deranged Jack Smith will never be Coach Bobby Knight, a Basketball Legend for all time, who led the last undefeated team in College Basketball. Coach Knight would always “play the refs,” but not to change the last call, to change the next one….

He then added part two of his attack:

Page 2: The Weaponization of Law Enforcement, the Harassment of Fair Judges, and rampant Election Interference cannot be allowed to continue. We have to end the Witch Hunts, win the most important Election in our History on November 5th, and Make America Great Again!