The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday appointed an independent prosecutor to oversee criminal investigations into former President Donald Trump’s withholding of national defense information, as well as the assault on Capitol Hill.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed Jack Smith to lead these investigations. A former chief prosecutor of the Special Tribunal in The Hague, Smith was in charge of assessing war crimes committed during the war in Kosovo — from February 1998 to June 1999 — according to CNN.
«Based on recent developments, including the former president’s announcement that he will be a candidate for president in the upcoming election and the incumbent president’s stated intention to be a candidate as well, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a prosecutor,» Garland said.
Smith must now investigate the possible criminal implications that Trump could face after an FBI operative discovered in his luxurious mansion in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, a remarkable amount of classified documents related to the defense of the United States.
Likewise, the independent prosecutor will also analyze the role of the former president in the ignominious afternoon of January 6, 2021, when a mob of ultra-nationalist hotheads stormed the Capitol in Washington to try to stop the transfer of power to the newly elected president, Joe Biden, considering that the elections were rigged.
According to witnesses consulted by the aforementioned U.S. television network, Smith’s main objective in leading both investigations is to gather more information and bring the testimony of witnesses before a federal grand jury in the coming weeks.
Smith has stressed that his main task will be to carry out these investigations «independently and based on the best traditions of the Department of Justice». «I will exercise independent judgment and move the investigations forward expeditiously and thoroughly to whatever outcome the facts and the law dictate,» he said.
However, the announcement has not been well received by former President Trump, who, in statements to the conservative Fox network, has assured that he «will not participate» in the investigations led by Smith, as he is not willing to collaborate with the «worst politicization of American Justice».
The former president has defended that his innocence has already been demonstrated repeatedly over the past few years, as he has overcome up to two ‘impeachment’ (impeachment) and former special prosecutor Robert Mueller failed to prove the alleged collusion of Trump.
Finally, Trump has been convinced that this announcement by the Justice Department comes just now, a few days after the former president announced his candidacy for the 2024 elections, because he is the one who leads «all the polls» among voters of «both parties».
«Hunter Biden is a criminal many times and nothing happens to him. Joe Biden is a criminal many times, and nothing happens to him (…) It is unfair to the country and to the Republican Party (…) The party has to stand up and fight,» he concluded.
