WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Friday he has appointed current war crimes prosecutor Jack Smith as special prosecutor to oversee investigations into former President Donald Trump.
Jack Smith will oversee both the investigation into Donald Trump’s handling of confidential government documents and the investigation into attempts to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power in the 2020 presidential election, Merrick Garland said.
The nomination comes three days after Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election.
Merrick Garland explained that this candidacy of Donald Trump and the intention attributed to Joe Biden to run for a second term made it necessary to appoint a special prosecutor.
“Appointing a special adviser at this time is the right thing to do,” Merrick Garland told a news conference.
This is the third special prosecutor appointed by the Justice Department since 2017 to oversee politically sensitive investigations.
These special prosecutors enjoy a high level of independence to avoid any conflict of interest.
Former FBI boss Robert Mueller was appointed special prosecutor in 2017 to oversee investigations into Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the ex-president’s ties to Russia.
In 2019, John Durham was appointed to investigate the origins of the FBI’s probe into Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Currently prosecutor at the special court for Kosovo in The Hague, Jack Smith has promised to act in “complete independence”.
“I intend to exercise independent judgment and will move the investigations forward quickly and thoroughly regardless of the conclusions that will arise from the facts and the law,” responded Jack Smith in a press release.
A source said the White House was not involved in the decision to appoint a special prosecutor.
(Report Sarah Lynch, French version Jean-Stéphane Brosse and Matthieu Protard)
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