“I have been going through this for six years— for six years I have been going through this, and I am not going to go through it anymore,” Trump whined to Fox News Digital yesterday. “And I hope the Republicans have the courage to fight this. I have been proven innocent for six years on everything— from fake impeachments to Mueller, who found no collusion, and now I have to do it more? It’s not acceptable. It is so unfair. It is so political.” What’s the delusional old gaslighter kvetching and moaning about now?
Because Trump announced he’s going to commit political suicide by running against Florida Gov. Ron DeSanctimonious, Attorney General Merrick Garland hand choice but to name a special counsel to continue the criminal investigations the Justice Department are in the midst of that regard Trump. That’s what Garland did yesterday and that’s what Trump is bellyaching about. He also mentioned he would not “partake” in either of the 2 criminal investigations— one involving his attempted coup and one involving his theft of top secret documents.
I’m guessing what he was really so worked up over is who Garland appointed special counsel. Jack Smith, the former head of the Justice Department’s public integrity section, will oversee the investigation. The NY Times reported that “Under federal regulations, special counsels like Smith have greater day-to-day autonomy than ordinary prosecutors but ultimately remain under the attorney general’s supervision and control. Among other things, if Smith were to eventually decide to seek Trump’s indictment, Garland would still have to sign off. The order appointing Smith, signed on Friday by Garland, named Trump in connection with the documents case. It also authorized the special counsel to ‘conduct the ongoing investigation into whether any person or entity violated the law’ in connection with the ‘lawful transfer of power’ after the 2020 elections.”
Smith, known as Jack, has served as the chief prosecutor in The Hague prosecuting war crimes in Kosovo since 2018. He was not present for the announcement because he recently injured his knee in a biking accident, a department official said.
As a prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York, Smith was known as a confident, charismatic person who did not shy away from difficult or controversial cases, former colleagues of his said.
“Jack is the consummate prosecutor and public servant: intelligent, balanced and fair,” said James McGovern, a partner at Hogan Lovells who worked with Smith for years at the federal prosecutor’s office in Brooklyn. “I have no idea what his political beliefs are because he’s completely apolitical. He’s committed to doing what is right.”
Special counsels are semi-independent prosecutors who by Justice Department regulations can be appointed for high-level investigations when there can be a conflict of interest, or the appearance of it. They can only be removed if they commit misconduct, and the department must tell Congress if an attorney general overrules some step a special counsel wants to take.
Smith, a graduate of Harvard Law School, had investigated war crimes for the International Criminal Court and helped prosecute police officers in a police brutality case in New York before taking on the role that most overlaps with his new assignment: running the Justice Department’s public integrity section from 2010 to 2015.
At the time he took it over, the section, which handles government corruption investigations, was reeling from the collapse of a criminal case against former Senator Ted Stevens. In his first few months, the section closed several high-profile investigations into members of Congress without charges. But in an interview that year with The New York Times, Smith denied that the section had lost its nerve on his watch.
“I understand why the question is asked,” Smith said. “But if I were the sort of person who could be cowed— ‘I know we should bring this case, I know the person did it, but we could lose, and that will look bad’— I would find another line of work. I can’t imagine how someone who does what I do or has worked with me could think that.”
His tenure included the prosecution of the former Democratic governor of Virginia, Robert McDonnell [McDonnell was a Republican, not a Democrat], on corruption charges— he was convicted, but the Supreme Court overturned it. It also included the successful prosecution of former Representative Rick Renzi, Republican of Arizona, who in 2013 was sentenced to three years in prison. (Trump later pardoned Renzi.)
Smith then worked for several years as the No. 2 federal prosecutor in Nashville, Tennessee, before returning to Europe for another round of working on war crimes cases.
For Trump, it will be a return to a familiar dynamic. The first half of his term he faced a special counsel investigation led by Robert Mueller III into the nature of myriad links between his 2016 campaign and Russia at a time when Moscow was carrying out a covert effort to help him win that election, and into whether Trump had obstructed justice.
Trump’s supporters have already accused the Biden-era Justice Department of investigating Trump for political reasons, and some Republicans have floated the idea of impeaching Garland if he pursues charges against the former president. That tension will only become more pronounced now that Trump is a candidate for president again.
The department has “a true conflict of interest, real or perceived,” said Claire Finkelstein, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the founder of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law. “Garland won’t be running for president, but his direct boss will be. It would be difficult to put measures in place that would reassure people that the Justice Department was acting with independence on the Trump investigation.”
The political swirl around the investigations of Trump intensified this week when the Republicans won control of the House.
On Friday, the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Garland announcing its intention to investigate several keys figures in the Justice Department with roles in the inquiries into Trump. Among those committee wants to interview, the letter said, were Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney in Washington, who is overseeing the Jan. 6 investigation, and top prosecutors in the department’s national security division, which is taking part in the investigation into Trump’s handling of documents.
What fascinates me is that Smith investigated Trump in the 1970’s when he was still just, basically a petty criminal, cheating his father's tenants and breaking anti-discrimination laws.
great. "merrick garland" shunting the blame for refusing to seek justice to a guy who already refused to hold trump accountable, but for lesser crimes, 50 years ago.
"...authorized the special counsel to ‘conduct the ongoing investigation into whether any person or entity violated the law’ in connection with the ‘lawful transfer of power’ after the 2020 elections.”
well, "they" trespassed, killed cops, stole stuff, smeared shit on the walls and they had a noose with pence's name on it. And they conspired to make states change the election counts, to have states to name fake electors and to have dozens of their puppet magats baselessly voting to NOT certify.
You got public domain proof and admissions that trump and…