as it is today, or at the very least, he should have made the announcement in august when they seized the documents that trump stole from the white house. so, the idea here allegedly stole, yeah. allegedly stole from the white house. as you pointed out in your open, right? we have been told by this department of justice that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted. we have been told by the department of justice that a person now running for office for president can t be prosecuted. we have been told by the department of justice that a person who isn t actually running in the midterm elections also can t be prosecuted because we re too close to the midterm elections. i m only jumping i m jumping in again, moderator s privilege, i apologize, because i want to play you some of how this reaction is going today on the right. take a look. merrick garland today may be breathing some sort of a sigh of relief, because he s now dumping this major, major job on to somebody else and i
there s nothing that assumes that. it also doesn t mean it s less likely he ll be indicted. there is nuance. so, we heard just now, i walked through why garland s move seems a bit unnecessary. we heard from a guest tonight about why he could have done something different. so, is there any substantive defense of what garland s doing? the answer is yes, and i want to share that with you too and it s going to be a little bit legal, but i think it s worth it. let me show you how this special counsel does have different autonomy, because the doj rules state that unlike basically everybody else at doj, the special counsel is not not subject to day-to-day supervision of any official. that obviously includes garland. and if there were a clash with any special counsel or this new one, and attorney general garland, so let s imagine that this special counsel s so aggressive that he wants to do something that garland opposes in the future.
come to the justice department only to say, you know, we think we ll pass on this prosecution. it looks like these folks are for real, that they re serious about taking a good hard look at the evidence here, and perhaps where there s value added in this process that merrick garland has decided to use comes in the day-to-day oversight of the investigation. it s a subtle point, but in a typical case, you have a united states attorney who s a presidential appointee, someone who has some sort of a political piece of skin in the game, and they re deciding what leads get investigated. what investigative steps get taken next. how does the case progress, or where you put the brakes on. now that there s a special counsel in place, that person, who is apolitical, will be making those calls, and that s the sort of circumstantial guarantee of fairness, this sort of lean that doj likes of letting the career people make decisions. it may never appeal to trump and his followers, but i think in hindsi
front, that is legally valid. the a.g. has that power. and now, this becomes legal reality. there s no evidence here that garland overstepped. at the same time, and a former u.s. attorney, david kelly, mentioned this in our discussion a few moments ago, i m going to tell you, at the same time, this action, creating this type of special counsel, is not required or necessary under a plain reading of the doj s standing rules. so, while it s valid, which i want to be fair about, it may also complicate or even confound these cases more than it clarifies them. so, i ll explain why right now in our special report. some people are suggesting that the mere appointment of a special counsel makes charges in these cases more likely. or charges against trump more likely. as a legal matter, that s just not true. over on the right, trump s allies are suggesting this new special counsel appointment, which adds a layer of some
kindly than some of us are viewing it in the moment. yeah. well, history will be able to judge it, because whether you charge or don t charge a former president facing two open probes is going to be noticed. it s going to be discussed. really, a bombshell that went off this afternoon. we re lucky to have two people who have been u.s. attorneys, who have made so many of these tough calls. my thanks to joyce and david, and as i mentioned at the top of the broadcast, i want to tell everyone, that s the news, and those are two experts breaking it down. when we come back, we turn to our special report, the mueller precedent, what this means and where the attorney general has set up new challenges for the doj as people question whether this is what leads to donald trump s indictment. that s next. eads to donald trump s indictment that s next. (vo) verizon small business days are back. and there s never been a better time to switch! get our best offers of the year on business internet. help