Cotton calls Trump special counsel filing ‘a temper tantrum from a deranged fanatic’ 

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton (R) said in a Sunday interview that the recently unsealed filing from special counsel Jack Smith is “a temper tantrum from a deranged fanatic.”

“Well, what I, what I think about what Jack Smith did this week, is that it was a temper tantrum from a deranged fanatic who is angry that he keeps losing time and time again in the Supreme Court over the course of his career,” Cotton said on NBC News’s “Meet the Press” with the outlet’s Kristen Welker.

The filing from Smith in his election interference case against former President Trump, unsealed Wednesday, described the former president’s attempt to foil the transfer of power as a “private criminal effort.” It also revealed an alleged comment by Trump in which he said “So what?” on Jan. 6, 2021, in response to an aide alerting the former president that his vice president had been taken to a secure location.

Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump, previously called Smith’s filing “falsehood-ridden” and “unconstitutional.”

“Deranged Jack Smith and Washington DC Radical Democrats are hell-bent on weaponizing the Justice Department in an attempt to cling to power,” Cheung said. “President Trump is dominating, and the Radical Democrats throughout the Deep State are freaking out. This entire case is a partisan, Unconstitutional Witch Hunt that should be dismissed entirely, together with ALL of the remaining Democrat hoaxes.”

On “Meet the Press,” Cotton called the filing “unverified, un-cross-examined hearsay from grand jury testimony, which usually isn’t revealed publicly for that reason.”

“He went to court,” Cotton said of Smith. “He asked for special permission to file a brief that’s four times as long as a normal brief, and to have it disclosed less than 30 days before the election. This … is professional misconduct, in all likelihood, by Jack Smith, and it should be investigated.”

The Hill has reached out to the Department of Justice.