US Justice Dept taps independent prosecutor for Trump probes
Appointing a special counsel at this time is the right thing to do. The extraordinary circumstances presented here demand it. — Merrick Garland, Attorney-General
WASHINGTON: The US Justice Department on Friday named a former war crimes investigator as a special counsel to oversee criminal probes into Donald Trump, three days after the former president announced a new White House run in 2024.
Trump — who claims to be the target of a ‘witch hunt’ — slammed the dramatic move as ‘unfair’ and ‘the worst politicisation of justice in our country.’
The White House strongly denied any political interference, but the unprecedented special counsel investigation of a former president — and current presidential candidate — sets the stage for a drawn-out legal battle.
At a press conference, Attorney-General Merrick Garland announced the appointment of Jack Smith, until recently a chief prosecutor in The Hague charged with probing Kosovo war crimes, to take over the two ongoing federal probes into Trump.
One is focused on the former president’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.
The other is an investigation into a cache of classified government documents seized in an FBI raid on Trump’s Mara-Lago residence in Florida in August. Garland said naming a special counsel was in the public interest because both the Republican Trump and his Democratic successor Joe Biden have stated their intention to run in 2024, although only Trump has officially declared for now.
“Appointing a special counsel at this time is the right thing to do,” Garland said.
“The extraordinary circumstances presented here demand it.”
At the White House, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden had no advance notice of Garland’s plans to name a special counsel.
Trump claimed in an interview with Fox News Digital that he was being targeted by the Biden administration to prevent him winning back the presidency.
“This is a disgrace and only happening because I am leading in every poll in both parties,” he said. “It is not acceptable. It is so unfair. It is so political.”
“This will not be a fair investigation,” Trump told guests later at his Mar-a-Lago home.
“The horrendous abuse of power is the latest in a long series of witch hunts,” he said, to applause.
In a statement, Smith, who previously headed the Justice Department’s Public Integrity section, said the “pace of the investigations will not pause or flag under my watch.”
“I will exercise independent judgement and will move the investigations forward expeditiously and thoroughly to whatever outcome the facts and the law dictate,” he said.