Following the announcement by former President Donald Trump to make another run for the White House in 2024, the Justice Department appointed a special counsel to oversee the two probes against him. One is the FBI Raid of his Mar-A-Lago home where federal investigators say he had documents that could compromise national security. The other probe is aimed at Trump’s role in the January 6th insurrection.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith as the new special counsel. Smith said he’ll pursue independent investigations, adding that the pace of the probes won’t pause under his watch.
Jack Smith began his career as a prosecutor in New York in the Manhattan District Attorney s office under prosecutor Robert Morgrenthau. He was a federal prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn where he won a death penalty case against a gang member who killed two NYPD detectives. At the Justice Department, he handled cases that targeted elected officials, including one he dropped for lack of evidence against former Republican Congressman Tom DeLay.
In recent weeks, prosecutors have brought witnesses before the grand jury–including a former Trump aide granted immunity so he could testify about the handling of classified documents. Next week, the Justice Department is going to ask a federal appeals court to intervene in the case so prosecutors can have unrestricted access to everything seized from the former president’s home.
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