brief statement, and one that i will read. this is a totally expected political stunt by a feckless politicized weaponized biden department of justice. this is a type of statement that we have become accustomed to over the last six years. this is the latest in which you are now looking at a special counsel who is coming in from the outside, and essentially the keys being handed over, from attorney general merrick garland, to the special counsel, to make at least a recommendation on the prosecuting front of not only the issues around january 6th and the peaceful transfer of power, but also the investigation into the movement, the transfer of classified and national defense material to mar-a-lago there, following his exit from the white house. when we re talking about this, and it s important to note the way in which the republican party is has largely defended donald trump in the last two years since his exit from office. this is a moment, where it was back in august, you will recall th
understand what this is. a special counsel is not a special prosecutor from the old days where a law allowed, and prosecutors to become completely independent of the justice department. a special prosecutor operates under the auspices of justice department. that s right. this person will have charging authority. this person will be able to file charges as robert mueller did, independent of any decision that merrick garland makes but if merrick garland decided he doesn t want to approve certain charges, he can block. that he has ultimate authority. and at the end of the process, the regulations require that the special counsel file a confidential report, with the attorney general, explaining his prosecution decision, and the decision not to prosecute. that was essentially the mueller report. i want to ask merrick garland today that we pledge to release to the extent key any kind of written report from the special counsel, merrick garland did not take questions. one thing that this d
wake of an unbelievable scandal that led to prosecutors being basically driven out of their jobs because they withheld information, important information, in their prosecution of senator, republican senator ted stevens, so he took over a hot shop and a hot mess, and i think it is interesting that office continued to plunge forward into contentious controversial cases under his watch. so when he signaled in his statement that he s not going to pause or flag, you get the feeling that the case that s teed up in mar-a-lago may move very, very quickly, and the elements of the january 6th investigation, that conspiracy, that is much more complicated, it is going to move on pace, with some rapidity, but probably with not any direct action that we see on the surface for a little while.
trump had, as president, with people in georgia, trying to change the results of the election, from that state, and then as we get to mar-a-lago, that seems to be a broader scope, where jack smith will have the ultimate oversight. and really from a 30,000 foot view. garland said he would not be involved in the day to day of the employees running the investigation but in order to make key decisions, prosecutorial decisions, we understand, because they will have prosecutorial power, and being able to recommend to the attorney general whether or not this prosecution should be made. and he will continue, hallie, if there are prosecutions, he would then be running that argument before a grand jury, before a court, to try to see these, from investigations, in prosecutions, if that line is crossed. also, he might have more longevity, if biden does not run again, if he is not re-elected, if trump is elected, jack smith could still be insulated and we have to prepare for the possibility that if
have a bunch of cases. this prosecutor will be almost exclusively focused on donald trump and other people at the top echelon. and merrick garland seemed to focus, he emphasized the fact that this isn t going to delay things significantly. we ll see whether that s true, but it s hard to think that somebody like jack smith would take this appointment if he were just going to decline the case. he doesn t know yet, he doesn t have all of the information in the investigation, but there s got to be something there for him to have accepted this assignment. can i ask you though, is this an assignment that you can reasonably turn down? yoong how the d.o.j. works but is this one of the things that you get asked, you re not really being asked, you re being told? this investigation is historic. so especially for someone who is interested in public corruption, and this special counsel ran the justice department s public