Reuters
ANNOUNCEMENTS•
US Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a special prosecutor to oversee the investigation into former President Donald Trump. Those investigations focus on his actions around the storming of the Capitol and how Trump handled classified government documents. He may have kept state secrets in his Florida estate after his presidency.
The new special prosecutor is Jack Smith, an experienced lawyer who has worked as a prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague in recent years. Garland said Smith will get right to work and fly back to Washington DC from The Hague.
The minister also said why he thinks a special prosecutor is needed. Trump’s announcement that he will run for president in 2024 plays a role, as does the expectation that President Biden will likely do it again. Jack Smith must ensure that prosecutors in both investigations are “arguably” guided only by fact and the law. Smith is registered as non-partisan, which means he is considered better able to defend himself against accusations of bias.
“The Justice Department has long known that in some special cases it is in the public interest to appoint a special prosecutor to conduct an independent investigation,” Garland said.
Reuters
Trump’s two investigations focus on whether “someone illegally attempted to disrupt the transition of power after the 2020 presidential election” and on confidential documents found in a search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Trump labeled both investigations politically motivated.
This is what the former president is doing again. Speaking on Fox News, Trump called the decision to appoint a special counsel “the worst politicization of justice in our country.” He called on his party members to take action against it.
Robert Mueller
Though Smith handles both investigations, it ultimately falls to Garland to determine whether or not charges will be brought.
Incidentally, it happens more often that the Ministry of Justice appoints a special prosecutor. During the Trump presidency, Robert Mueller was appointed as a special counsel to lead the investigation into possible Russian interference in Trump’s 2016 campaign.
