CBS correspondent Robert Costa said his sources revealed that special counsel Jack Smith has a more "sprawling" case against Donald Trump than previously thought.
December 24, 2023

CBS correspondent Robert Costa said his sources revealed that special counsel Jack Smith has a more "sprawling" case against Donald Trump than previously thought.

Costa reacted to news that the Supreme Court had given Trump a minor win by refusing Smith's petition to decide on the former president's immunity claims immediately.

"As I look ahead as a reporter, the campaign is going to come back again and again, likely to the high court, and how it's going to consider Trump's conduct in and around January 6th," Costa said. "Whether it's the immunity question, whether it's about the January 6th defendants who have their cases coming before the Supreme Court, whether it's about how the court's going to proceed if Trump's convicted in the special counsel case."

Costa said the question would be whether Trump conspired against the United States government.

"Based on our reporting at CBS News, the special counsel has phone records," he explained. "He has memos and diary entries from key witnesses, like former Vice President Mike Pence, key eyewitness testimony from people who are inside the Oval Office with Trump."

"But they had something in the special counsel's office the January 6th Committee never had, which is subpoena power to really go deep with witnesses and not just get public testimony and some depositions," he added. "They've gone deep. And I've talked to people who participated in this investigation as lawyers, sometimes even as witnesses."

"And it's evident to me, based on my conversations with sources, that Jack Smith has a sprawling case against former President Donald Trump," he concluded.

CBS correspondent Jan Crawford predicted that the high court would eventually strike down Trump's claims of presidential immunity.

"They are not going to rule that he is immune from criminal prosecution," she observed. "And I don't think it's even going to be close. It could be 9-0."

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