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Live Updates: Garland Names Special Counsel for Trump Inquiries

"The Inevitable Indictment of Donald Trump
It’s clear to me that Merrick Garland will bring charges against Donald Trump. It’s just a matter of when."

Ignore the times here, they're out-of-date.

The attorney general named Jack Smith, the former head of the Justice Department’s public integrity section, to the job just days after former President Donald J. Trump announced that he would seek the White House again in 2024.

Video 1:49 - Attorney General Names Special Counsel in Trump Investigations
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland appointed Jack Smith, the former head of the Justice Department’s public integrity
section, to oversee two major criminal investigations into former President Donald J. Trump. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

20 minutes ago
Glenn Thrush, Charlie Savage and Alan Feuer

Jack Smith, the special counsel, will take over two inquiries into Trump.

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Merrick B. Garland on Friday appointed a special counsel to take over two major criminal investigations involving former President Donald J. Trump, including his role in events leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and his handling of sensitive government documents.

Jack Smith, the former head of the Justice Department’s public integrity section, will oversee the investigation into Mr. Trump’s retention of sensitive government documents at his home in Florida, and key aspects of the separate inquiry into his actions before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, Mr. Garland said during a news conference.

Mr. Garland, who has sought to insulate the department from claims that the investigations into Mr. Trump were motivated by politics, said Mr. Trump’s announcement on Tuesday that he was running for president in 2024, coupled with the possibility President Biden would also run, prompted him to take what he described as an “extraordinary” step.

“Such an appointment underscores the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters,” Mr. Garland said at a hastily arranged news conference at department headquarters.

“I intend to conduct the assigned investigations, and any prosecutions that may result from them, independently and in the best traditions of the Department of Justice,” Mr. Smith said in a statement. He vowed that the investigations would move forward expeditiously “to whatever outcome the facts and the law dictate.”

Under federal regulations, special counsels like Mr. Smith have greater day-to-day autonomy than ordinary prosecutors but ultimately remain under the attorney general’s supervision and control. Among other things, if Mr. Smith were to eventually decide to seek Mr. Trump’s indictment, Mr. Garland would still have to sign off.

The order appointing Mr. Smith, signed on Friday by Mr. Garland, named Mr. Trump in connection with the documents case. It also authorized the special counsel to “conduct the ongoing investigation into whether any person or entity violated the law” in connection with the “lawful transfer of power” after the 2020 elections.

Mr. Smith, known as Jack, has served as the chief prosecutor in The Hague prosecuting war crimes in Kosovo since 2018. He was not present for the announcement because he recently injured his knee in a biking accident, a department official said.

As a prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York, Mr. Smith was known as a confident, charismatic person who did not shy away from difficult or controversial cases, former colleagues of his said.

“Jack is the consummate prosecutor and public servant: intelligent, balanced and fair,” said James McGovern, a partner at Hogan Lovells who worked with Mr. Smith for years at the federal prosecutor’s office in Brooklyn. “I have no idea what his political beliefs are because he’s completely apolitical. He’s committed to doing what is right.”

Special counsels are semi-independent prosecutors who by Justice Department regulations can be appointed for high-level investigations when there can be a conflict of interest, or the appearance of it. They can only be removed if they commit misconduct, and the department must tell Congress if an attorney general overrules some step a special counsel wants to take.

Mr. Smith, a graduate of Harvard Law School, had investigated war crimes for the International Criminal Court and helped prosecute police officers in a police brutality case in New York before taking on the role that most overlaps with his new assignment: running the Justice Department’s public integrity section from 2010 to 2015.

At the time he took it over, the section, which handles government corruption investigations, was reeling from the collapse of a criminal case against former Senator Ted Stevens. In his first few months, the section closed several high-profile investigations into members of Congress without charges. But in an interview that year with The New York Times, Mr. Smith denied that the section had lost its nerve on his watch.

“I understand why the question is asked,” Mr. Smith said. “But if I were the sort of person who could be cowed — ‘I know we should bring this case, I know the person did it, but we could lose, and that will look bad’ — I would find another line of work. I can’t imagine how someone who does what I do or has worked with me could think that.”

His tenure included the prosecution of the former governor of Virginia, Robert McDonnell, on corruption charges — he was convicted, but the Supreme Court overturned it. It also included the successful prosecution of former Representative Rick Renzi, Republican of Arizona, who in 2013 was sentenced to three years in prison. (Mr. Trump later pardoned Mr. Renzi.)

Mr. Smith then worked for several years as the No. 2 federal prosecutor in Nashville, Tenn., before returning to Europe for another round of working on war crimes cases.

For Mr. Trump, it will be a return to a familiar dynamic. The first half of his term he faced a special counsel investigation led by Robert S. Mueller III into the nature of myriad links between his 2016 campaign and Russia at a time when Moscow was carrying out a covert effort to help him win that election, and into whether Mr. Trump had obstructed justice.

Mr. Trump’s supporters have already accused the Biden-era Justice Department of investigating Mr. Trump for political reasons, and some Republicans have floated the idea of impeaching Mr. Garland if he pursues charges against the former president. That tension will only become more pronounced now that Mr. Trump is a candidate for president again.

The department has “a true conflict of interest, real or perceived,” said Claire Finkelstein, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the founder of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law. “Garland won’t be running for president, but his direct boss will be. It would be difficult to put measures in place that would reassure people that the Justice Department was acting with independence on the Trump investigation.”

The political swirl around the investigations of Mr. Trump intensified this week when the Republicans won control of the House.

On Friday, the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Mr. Garland announcing its intention to investigate several keys figures in the Justice Department with roles in the inquiries into Mr. Trump. Among those committee wants to interview, the letter said, were Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney in Washington, who is overseeing the Jan. 6 investigation, and top prosecutors in the department’s national security division, which is taking part in the investigation into Mr. Trump’s handling of documents.

19 minutes ago
Maggie Haberman

Trump attacks the appointment of the special counsel: ‘It is so unfair. It is so political.’


Former President Donald J. Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., earlier this week. Andrew Harnik/Associated Press

Former President Donald J. Trump attacked the appointment of a special counsel to handle investigations related to his efforts to stay in power and his possession of classified documents at his members-only club and residence in Florida.

“I have been going through this for six years — for six years I have been going through this, and I am not going to go through it anymore,” Mr. Trump told Fox News Digital. “And I hope the Republicans have the courage to fight this.”

He went on, “I have been proven innocent for six years on everything — from fake impeachments to Mueller, who found no collusion, and now I have to do it more?”

“It is not acceptable. It is so unfair. It is so political,” Mr. Trump said, adding he would not “partake” in the special counsel inquiry.


54 minutes ago
Katie Benner

In a statement issued Friday, the new special counsel, Jack Smith, said that he would “conduct the assigned investigations, and any prosecutions that may result from them, independently and in the best traditions of the Department of Justice.” He said that the investigations would “not pause or flag” under his watch and that he would “move the investigations forward expeditiously and thoroughly to whatever outcome the facts and the law dictate.”


1 hour ago
Maggie Haberman

Smith was a federal prosecutor in an office that was among the first to investigate a young Donald Trump in the 1970s, on possible fraud charges. It was a roughly six-month investigation and closed without charges. Trump soon after began telling people about his ordeal.


.Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

1 hour ago
Maggie Haberman

A Trump spokesman responds as we have heard Trump aides respond before: “This is a totally expected political stunt by a feckless, politicized, weaponized Biden Department of Justice.”

1 hour ago
Katie Benner

While a prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York, Smith was known as a confident, charismatic person who did not shy away from difficult or controversial cases. “Jack is the consummate prosecutor and public servant: Intelligent, balanced and fair,” said James McGovern, a partner at Hogan Lovells who worked with him for years at the federal prosecutor’s office in Brooklyn. “I have no idea what his political beliefs are because he’s completely apolitical. He’s committed to doing what is right.”

1 hour ago
Maggie Haberman

Trump is said to have told some allies that the idea of a special counsel infuriated him, given his experience with the length of the Mueller investigation. He believes it could hang over him for months. Nonetheless, it might make a prosecution more distant.

1 hour ago
Maggie Haberman

Trump advisers say his lawyers have made clear to him that declaring a candidacy wouldn’t prevent a possible indictment. But he is also said to be aware he can use the unprecedented circumstances to muddy the waters.

1 hour ago
Alan Feuer and Charlie Savage

Who Is Jack Smith, the New Special Counsel?


Jack Smith in 2020 during a hearing in The Hague, where he has been the lead prosecutor at a special court that deals with war crimes during the Kosovo conflict. He ran the Justice Department’s public integrity section from 2010 to 2015. Pool photo by Jerry Lampen

Jack Smith, the Justice Department’s newly appointed special counsel, will come to the task of investigating former President Donald J. Trump with a wealth of experience: He has been prosecuting criminal cases for nearly three decades.

Mr. Smith got his start in the 1990s as a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office and soon moved to a similar job at the United States Attorney’s office in Brooklyn. There, he served in a number of supervisory positions, according to his Justice Department biography, and worked on an assortment of cases, many involving public corruption.

From 2008 to 2010, Mr. Smith worked as the investigation coordinator in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. In that role, he oversaw high-profile inquiries of foreign government officials and militia members wanted for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

Returning to the United States, Mr. Smith served from 2010 to 2015 as chief of the Justice Department’s public integrity section, which investigates politicians and other public figures on corruption allegations.

Two of Mr. Smith’s more notable corruption cases against high-profile political figures had opposite results. His team initially won a conviction against the former Gov. Robert McDonnell of Virginia, a Republican, but the Supreme Court overturned it.

It also won a conviction of former Representative Rick Renzi, Republican of Arizona, who was sentenced to three years in prison. (Mr. Trump pardoned Mr. Renzi among a flurry of clemency actions in January 2021, in his last hours as president.)

When Mr. Smith took over the public integrity section, it was reeling from the collapse of a criminal case against former Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska. In Mr. Smith’s first few months on the job, the section closed several prominent investigations into members of Congress without charges.

But in an interview that year with The New York Times, Mr. Smith denied that the section on his watch had lost its nerve.

“I understand why the question is asked,” Mr. Smith said at the time. “But if I were the sort of person who could be cowed — ‘I know we should bring this case, I know the person did it, but we could lose, and that will look bad’ — I would find another line of work. I can’t imagine how someone who does what I do or has worked with me could think that.”

A graduate of Harvard Law School, Mr. Smith has also worked in top positions at the United States Attorney’s office for the Middle District of Tennessee in Nashville.

Mr. Smith will take on the role of special counsel after leaving his current position as a specialist prosecutor based in The Hague investigating war crimes. He will remain in the Netherlands for some time, according to the Justice Department, in order to recover from a recent bicycle accident.

A correction was made on Nov. 18, 2022
: An earlier version of this article misstated the political affiliation of a former governor of Virginia. Robert McDonnell was a Republican, not a Democrat.

1 hour ago
Katie Benner

Legal experts have said that Trump’s decision to run presents a conflict of interest for the department, real or perceived. Garland’s boss will be running against Trump, and it will be difficult to implement any measures that would reassure people that investigation was not a political attack.

1 hour ago
Glenn Thrush

It is notable that Garland has used the term “obstruction” at least twice — the obstruction case, along with possible violations of the Espionage Act, are considered to be the two most likely charges that could be brought against Mr. Trump.

1 hour ago
Maggie Haberman

But Garland makes clear that Trump created a conflict he didn’t feel he could ignore.

2 hours ago

Maggie Haberman

That Garland is making the charging call is significant.

2 hours ago
Glenn Thrush

Garland said he was “confident” that the appointment of the special counsel would not slow down either investigation — and emphasized that he will ultimately make the decision on whether or not to prosecute.

2 hours ago
Michael S. Schmidt

Garland says Jack Smith, the special counsel, will start immediately. But Smith has to get back to the United States first — he has been living and working at The Hague.

2 hours ago
Michael S. Schmidt

In regards to the Justice Department’s Jan. 6 investigation, a good way to think of the special counsel is that he will investigate anyone who played a role in trying to overturn the election but was not a rioter on the ground.

2 hours ago
Michael D. Shear

White House officials say they had no involvement in the special counsel decision.


President Biden in Washington on Friday.Credit...Sarah Silbiger for The New York Times

Officials at the White House said on Friday that they were “not involved” in the decision by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate former President Donald J. Trump.

Asked whether President Biden or others in the administration were aware of the attorney general’s decision ahead of time, a White House aide noted that the Justice Department makes decisions about criminal investigations independently of the president or his White House staff.

The official referred all questions about the appointment of a special counsel to the Justice Department.

Mr. Trump announced on Tuesday that he is running for president again. Mr. Biden said last week that he “intends” to run in 2024 but would talk with his family before announcing a decision early next year.

When Mr. Trump was president, he repeatedly sought to interfere with his attorney general and other Justice Department officials, harassing them on Twitter and repeatedly pressuring them to do his bidding.

Mr. Biden has made a point to insist that he would reverse those practices and return to the more traditional practice of past presidents, who distanced themselves from criminal investigations being conducted by the department, especially when they involved political figures.

Aides have repeatedly declined to discuss the investigations being conducted by the Justice Department into the former president. That appears unlikely to change now that a special counsel has been appointed.

2 hours ago
Michael S. Schmidt

Garland points out the major reasons why he has made this move: Trump has announced that he’s running for president — and the current president, who oversees the department, has indicated he will most likely run again for president.

2 hours ago
Michael S. Schmidt

Special counsels were created to put distance between the politics of the moment and the investigative work of the Justice Department. Under the regulations for special counsels, the Justice Department will have to tell Congress about any major investigative moves that the special counsel wanted to take that were overruled by senior department officials. Also, the special counsel can be fired only for cause — essentially, for not doing their job.

2 hours ago

Maggie Haberman
While officials are generally mindful of prosecutorial activity within 60 days of an election, grand jury activity was still going on in connection with the documents case.

2 hours ago
Maggie Haberman

The special counsel could end up simply relieving Merrick Garland of a charging decision. Or, the special counsel could end up running the investigation for many months into the presidential election, which would be something of a boon to Trump.

2 hours ago
Michael S. Schmidt

This special counsel will have a different feel from the investigation conducted by Robert S. Mueller III into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia and whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice. In the Mueller investigation, Mr. Trump, as president, could fire Mr. Mueller at any point. That created a massive level of tension between the Justice Department and the White House. And, in another difference from the Mueller investigation, a significant amount of investigative work has already been done by federal authorities.

2 hours ago
Glenn Thrush

What is a special counsel?

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and his team have long considered creating a layer of protection for the Justice Department by tapping a special counsel, a veteran prosecutor appointed by Mr. Garland to run the day-to-day investigation. But even with the appointment of a special counsel, any final decisions on whether to charge former President Donald J. Trump would still be made by Mr. Garland and the department’s senior leadership.

Under federal law, a special counsel functions, in essence, as a pop-up U.S. attorney’s office with broad discretion over every aspect of an investigation in “extraordinary circumstances” in which the normal chain of command could be seen as creating a conflict of interest.

An attorney general still has the right to approve or discard a special counsel’s recommendations. But if Mr. Garland were to reject the counsel’s recommendation, he would have to inform Congress, a safeguard intended to ensure transparency and autonomy.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/11/18/us/trump-garland-special-counsel