On Friday (November 18), Attorney General Merrick Garland named a special counsel to oversee the Department of Justice’s ongoing investigation into former President Donald Trump.
The role will be given to Jack Smith, a former official in the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section, a unit that investigates public corruption and current war crimes investigator.
Smith will be overseeing two criminal investigations into Trump — the mishandling of sensitive government records and an investigation into January 6, 2021, insurrection meant to uncover if “any person or entity unlawfully interfered with the transfer of power.”
During the press conference where Garland made the announcement, he pointed to Trump’s decision to pursue the White House in 2024 as “extraordinary circumstances” that justify the expedited appointment of a special counsel.
Garland explained that “recent developments,” including Trump’s “announcement… he is a candidate for president in the next election,” and Biden’s intention to be a candidate in 2024, “public interest” required the appointment of a special counsel.
The Attorney General noted that Smith’s appointment “underscores” the DOJ’s “commitment” to “independence and accountability” when handling “sensitive matters.”
Smith will be returning to the U.S. to assume the role after he was stationed in the Netherlands’ administrative capital, The Hague, where he was investigating war crimes in Kosovo.
Smith is a veteran prosecutor, working his way through the ranks of the DOJ since 1994 and serving as an assistant U.S. attorney in New York before becoming a U.S. attorney in Tennessee.
In a statement, Smith declared his intention to conduct the investigations “and any prosecutions that may result from them, independently.”
Trump is expected not to cooperate with the special counsel.
