didn t charge, that s it, that s all we re telling you. in recent years, there s been some expectation from the public that they would have some understanding of what went into those decisions. so we re you know, this is just up with part, today just one part of the larger sort of myriad of issues that come up when you have these high-profile political investigations. they just have aspects to them that other ones don t. and the principle that everyone has looked at and treated equally under the law is a central tenant of the united states, but when it comes to people of real high prominence, we see things happen around the investigation. on neat, neal katyal, i ll give you the last word. so, i think one thing to think about about the special counsel regulations is the way they work, this appointment of a
see it, but nonetheless, you know, the proof will be in the pudding. if this special counsel can move quickly and do an indictment on mar-a-lago, which, as i say, is a pretty easy case, you know, people like me, the critics will recede into the background, but if this is another delay tactic that will allow trump to stall out, even if he s indicted, if it s close to the 24 election, hope that there s a presidential election by whoever wins the republican party in 24, this could be a real fiasco for the rule of law neil, i think you put into expert words and have the receipts to know what you are talking about the exasperation that people feel. let me just follow up with you. what has been so clear in what what has been disclosed by doj
i m not sure look, collectively, i think a lot of people learned a lot from the mueller investigation, whether it was myself as a reporter realizing and appreciating the difficulty of the law holding a president of the united states accountable. whether it was prosecutors who were watching and realizing that if the mueller investigation was there to bring clarity to a very messy situation, which i m not sure it totally was, but to some extent it may have been, it wasn t effective at this. look, i think that people think that they learn time and time again from different investigations of trump the best way to do it, but at the end of the day, he has managed to get past and beat pretty much all of them. he did suffer the ultimate political consequence in losing re-election, but he has found a way at the local, state, and,
the electoral college vote held on or about january 6th 2021, as well as any matters that arose or might arise directly from this investigation. this authorization does not apply to prosecution of vigilance that they committed while physically present on the capitol grounds on january 6th, 2021. that s some of the actual order, but tell us what you know about mr. smith. well, he brings a very interesting background to this position that helps us understand why merrick garland chose him. i think mary does a great job of explaining it, and i completely agree with her about the importance of taking this decision out of the hands of political people. because even though people like mary and me spent much of our careers as line prosecutors, when you take on these higher-level roles, you re working, in essence, for the administration and you become a political appointee at some point. that s not the case here with jack smith. he s done his time in
people who were not accused of trespassing and who were not at the u.s. capitol. obviously, chief among them is donald trump. your reaction to that part of the attorney general s press conference? you know, i think he s made clear, we ve always believed that lurking in the background is the extent to which the department, like the attorney general has said before, will hold everyone accountable. that no one is above the law. and of course, that has to mean anyone who has anything to do with planning or agreeing or sanctioning or conspiring to bring about an attack on democracy and the certification of electoral college ballots on january 6th, including former president. and that investigation, it could be said, has a more political component to it, perhaps, than the mere willful retention of classified documents in mar-a-lago or the obstruction of justice. and that investigation has been carried out to date by competent career officials in whom i have the highest confidence.