The moment and those extraordinary circumstances being the former president who was under criminal investigation was running for his old job again and against whose cabinet the attorney general served. the attorney general in my view made the decision to appoint jack smith to this position, and importantly and this is important, jonathan, because what we re hearing now from donald trump and others is that the justice department is being weaponized against him. but that is not what is happening. jack smith is the one who has exercised his own prosecutorial discretion to bring this case. smith is not a political appointee like garland was, like i was. he is part of doj s career workforce. he s a political independent, and he doesn t have a political bone in his body despite what donald trump is telling his supporters.
This whole notion that doj has been weaponized against donald trump. and here s what i know based on my two years there, i saw the attorney general put in place people and processes to make sure that the rule of law treating like casesike is reinfused throughout every aspect of the department. how does that play out in practice? you see this is how i would argue, this is how we got jack smith, he s a political independent, he s a part of doj career workforce, and importantly, jack smith isn t subject to the day-to-day supervision of anybody at the justice department, not garland, not heads of the national security division. this entire notion that this is biden s justice department going after trump nothing could be further from the truth.
Assisting so that the making for this prosecutorial decision they are part of the doj s career workforce. they are not people like me who come and go, political appointees with a change administration. they transcend administrations. and let me do a quick follow-up before i move on to glenn. so, because of that independents, anthony, what about special counsel jack smith? fantastic speaking indictment, southern district of florida, easy read lots of details. but considering that independents you to spoke about, should america actually hear from special counsel dak smith about this indictment? so i think it is very important for the facts to remain front and center. my remembrance of last week at this time when the indictment came out on friday, you remember opening the newspapers on saturday or sunday of last week. what we saw was evidence.
He s part of the career workforce. it s important here for the attorney general back in november. he was president with disappointment. because he anticipated that these attacks would come from republican allies. republican allies of the president. so i think what s happened here is an overwhelming set of facts that prove at its core that base department was guided by what was ultimately what was ultimately right. mary, a big question out there right now it s about the judge aileen cannon who we learned the reporting issue would have to recuse herself in order to not be the one overseeing the case. i had spoke this morning with the former attorney general about this. i want to play a clip of that and then talk to you about it on the other hand. i m concerned about her
Environmental pollution change. i am proud of the work of the department s employees, the work they have done to uphold the rule of law to keep our country safe and protect civil rights. the department s career workforce has demonstrated extraordinary resilience after years of unprecedented challenges. they have conducted themselves with the utmost integrity without regard to any partisan or any other inappropriate instances and they have done their work with a commitment to the public we all serve. the employees of the justice department are dedicated, skilled and patriotic public servants. it is my honor to represent them here today. thank you for the opportunity to testify. i look forward to your questions. thanks, attorney general. you grew up in lincolnwood, illinois, if i m not mistaken at least part of your life? that s true. it s not far from highland