The Daily Fuckup

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith special counsel on Nov. 18, 2022, giving him control of two federal investigations tied to Donald Trump. One probe concerns efforts to interfere with the transfer of power after the 2020 election. The other concerns classified documents and other presidential records, along with possible obstruction related to that inquiry.

The Justice Department said Smith, a former career prosecutor and former chief prosecutor for the special court in The Hague, would oversee both matters. Smith said in a statement that he intended to carry out the investigations independently and move them forward quickly and thoroughly, with any prosecutions guided by the facts and the law.

The appointment put the Trump-related inquiries under a special counsel structure designed to separate them from day-to-day political leadership at the department. That does not guarantee any outcome. It does mean the investigations would continue under a prosecutor with a formal mandate to keep them moving.

For Trump, the shift mattered because it moved the cases into a more durable channel inside the Justice Department. The election inquiry had already been described in court filings as a look at whether any person or entity unlawfully interfered with the transfer of power after the 2020 vote. The documents case had already been tied in court filings to classified material, other presidential records and possible obstruction. Smith’s appointment put both matters under one set of hands, with no indication from the department that either would be slowed or shelved.