CNN –
The legal jeopardy facing former President Donald Trump in two federal criminal investigations took a new turn Friday with the appointment of a special counsel at the Justice Department.
Jack Smith, a DOJ alum known for his work on international war crimes trials, will take over the investigation into sensitive government documents brought to Trump’s Florida home late in his presidency.
Smith will also oversee aspects of the investigation to review efforts to obstruct the transfer of presidential power after 2020, including bids to interfere with congressional vote certification.
Here’s what you need to know about the ad and investigations:
The attorney general announced the appointment of a special counsel for the investigations, both of which have implicated Trump, who announced this week that he is running for the White House in 2024.
Merrick Garland announces special counsel to oversee Trump investigations
Smith will ultimately report to Attorney General Merrick Garland. But as special counsel he will function outside the day-to-day oversight of the department’s political leadership, and his interactions with Biden’s political appointees should be limited.
The independent special counsel puts some distance between the political leadership of the Department, which has been appointed by President Joe Biden, and what is happening in the investigations related to Trump. Smith is registered as an independent, a DOJ official told reporters.
“This appointment underscores the Department’s commitment to independence and accountability on particularly sensitive issues,” Garland said. “It also allows prosecutors and officers to continue their work expeditiously and make unquestionable decisions guided only by the facts and the law.”
The appointment has the practical effect of limiting the information about the investigation that must be released to Congress, as only details about its budget must be shared with lawmakers.
Special attorney regulations allow Garland to fire Smith. But any decision Garland makes to deny a special counsel request, including charging decisions, must also be reported to Congress.
Garland specifically pointed to Trump’s announcement earlier this week that he will seek the Republican nomination in 2024, as well as indications that Biden has given that he also intends to run for re-election.
Department officials had been discussing appointing a special counsel in the probes involving the former president, CNN first reported earlier this month, as a way to shield the probes from allegations they were being driven by politics.
Garland defended the work of DOJ officials who had been working on those investigations, saying Friday that they had conducted “their work in the best traditions of the Department of Justice.” But, he said, the DOJ “has long recognized that, in certain extraordinary cases, it is in the public interest to appoint a special prosecutor to independently handle an investigation and prosecution.”
An attorney general’s ability to bring in someone from outside the federal government to lead a politically sensitive investigation is set out in US law.
Legal experts in the new report conclude that there is a “solid basis” to impeach Trump
The appointment order is the clearest signal yet that scrutiny of the two investigations has turned to Trump-related conduct. That doesn’t mean Trump will be indicted, or that even his close aides will face charges. But it does mean that there will be more opacity surrounding this investigation and the Mar-a-Lago probe. And these investigations will run on a much longer leash.
So far, prosecutions in the January 6, 2021 investigation have focused on the U.S. Capitol riot itself. But behind the scenes, there have been signs that federal investigators were looking more broadly at other schemes to interfere with the transfer of power, including schemes involving the former president’s inner circle.
The newly appointed special counsel has worked in law enforcement roles in America and on the world stage, with a career that Garland said showed his reputation as “an impartial and determined prosecutor.”
Smith’s most recent role was as chief prosecutor investigating war crimes in Kosovo for a special tribunal in The Hague.
His previous work at the Department of Justice includes work as a prosecutor in the US Attorney’s office in Brooklyn, as well as his time as head of the Public Integrity Section, which investigates election crimes and public corruption. He also served as a senior prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee, where he was elevated to acting U.S. Attorney in early 2017. He served in that role for several months under the administration from Trump
Smith will have at his disposal all the investigative tools a US attorney can use, including subpoena power. You will be given your own budget and will be able to create a staff to support your work. If he decides to bring any charges, his team could also lead those proceedings in court. Your investigative work must comply with all Department of Justice regulations, procedures, and policies.
Garland said he will “ensure that the special counsel receives the resources to carry out this work expeditiously and thoroughly.”
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s two-year investigation into Trump-Russia ties ultimately cost nearly $32 million, but that total includes what Mueller borrowed from other parts of the Justice Department that weren’t under its direct control.
Trump said Friday that he “will not participate” in the investigation.
“I’ve proven myself innocent for six years in everything from false impeachments to Mueller not finding collusion, and now I have to do it again?” Trump told Fox News Digital. “It is not acceptable. It’s so unfair. It’s very political.”
He continued: “I’m not going to be involved … I announce it and then they appoint a special prosecutor.”
Garland is appointing Smith to oversee parts of the Jan. 6 probe, but the scope of those parts is broad.
The appointment describes his authority to investigate “whether any person or entity violated the law in connection with efforts to interfere with the lawful transfer of power after the 2020 presidential election or the certification of the Electoral College vote held on or about January 6, 2021.”
Prosecutions involving those who physically broke into the Capitol that day will remain under the purview of the U.S. attorney’s office in D.C., Garland said.
Mueller’s investigation culminated in the 400-page report that was eventually made public with some redactions. However, there is no obligation for a special counsel to prepare a comprehensive, publicly available report. The regulations only require the special counsel to provide the attorney general with a “confidential report explaining the decisions to prosecute or decline made by the special counsel.”
Garland on Friday did not respond to a reporter’s question about the possibility of a report being released.
CNN’s legal analyst explains why he thinks Garland chose Smith
There is no deadline for the special counsel to conclude his investigation. If anything, as special counsel, Smith could be more insulated from political pressure to close the investigation. Critics of the current rules for the special counsel complain that the regime allows probes to drag on as they grow in scope.
Smith, in a statement released by the Justice Department with his announcement, stressed that he would not let his appointment slow the pace of the investigations: “The pace of the investigations will not stop or flag under my watch. I will independent judgment and I will move forward with investigations promptly and thoroughly to whatever outcome the facts and law dictate.”