Jack Smith, in a Moment of Vainglory, Compares Himself to Saint Thomas à Becket, Martyred at a King’s Question

Will an appeals court be persuaded that Trump is analogous to Henry II, whose knights killed the most famous priest in the kingdom?

British Library via Wikimedia Commons
Earliest known depiction of the assassination of Thomas Becket, author unknown. British Library via Wikimedia Commons

Enter stage left, Thomas à Becket. The Archbishop of Canterbury, murdered a millennium ago on his cathedral’s floor, appears in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s latest brief to the District of Columbia Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals requesting a gag order on President Trump.

In seeking to secure a prior restraint against the 45th president,  Mr. Smith compares Mr. Trump’s rhetoric on Truth Social to  King Henry II’s remark, “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?” That royal query — or invitation — made on Christmas Day in 1170 is reported by a monk who was injured alongside Becket when the prelate was murdered.

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