Who is Jack Smith? Garland appoints Prosecutor As Special Counsel In Trump Probes

>> AND HE’S NOT GOING TO TAKE ANY QUESTIONS, CLEARLY. ATTORNEY GENERAL MERRICK GARLAND SAYING IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO. TAKING THE EXTRAORDINARY AND UNPRECEDENTED STEP OF NAMING A SPECIAL COUNSEL IN TWO SEPARATE INVESTIGATIONS INVOLVING THE FORMER PRESIDENT AND CURRENT CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, DONALD TRUMP. OF COURSE, ONE OF THEM THE MAR-A-LAGO DOCUMENTS CASE, THE OTHER JANUARY 6th, SPECIFICALLY RELATED TO ANY ATTEMPTS TO OVERTURN THE 2020 ELECTION. LISA RUBEN AND HARRY LITMAN REMAIN WITH ME. JULIA AINSLEY JOINS ME AS WELL. WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE BACK STORY. >> WE KNOW THIS

IS BECAUSE OF EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES. THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT HAD SOME VERY LARGE CASES HERE AGAINST FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP, NOT JUST A FORMER PRESIDENT, BUT IS NOW A CANDIDATE, HAVING JUST ANNOUNCED HIS CANDIDACY TO RUN AGAIN IN 2024. ANNOUNCING THAT THREE DAYS AGO. IT’S HARD NOT TO SEE THAT AS AN IMPETUS FOR THIS DECISION. AND THEN HIS DECISION TO NAME JACK SMITH, SOMEONE WHO WOULD NOT BE READILY AT THE TIP OF THE TONGUE OF REPUBLICANS OR DEMOCRATS OR SEEN AS A PARTISAN AND IN FACT MOST WELL KNOWN AS A RECENT ROLE AS A SPECIALIST PROSECUTOR APPOINTED BY

THE EUROPEAN UNION TO CARRY OUT INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE KOSOVO LIBERATION ARMY FOR POSSIBLE WAR CRIMES IN KOSOVO. SO HE HAD INTERNATIONAL CLOUT, HE’S ALSO COME UP

THROUGH THE RANKS OF THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, BEGINNING IN THE ’90s, ALSO GETTING INTO THE RANK OF ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY, IN TENNESSEE, AND TO BE SOMEONE WHO CLEARLY HAS BUILT UP A REPUTATION AS A PROSECUTOR, BOTH WITHIN THE UNITED STATES, AND ABROAD, AND HE’S ALSO, YOU KNOW, FAIRLY YOUNG, AND DETERMINED THAT HE IS NOT ALREADY RETIRED. HE IS NOT SOMEONE LIKE ROBERT MUELLER, WHO THEY CALLED OUT OF RETIREMENT. OF COURSE,

TOWARD THE END OF ROBERT MUELLER’S TIME, HIS TESTIMONY BEFORE CONGRESS, THERE WERE SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT WAS HE TOO OLD TO BE DOING THAT JOB. THAT DOESN’T SEEM THAT THIS WILL BE A QUESTION HERE, BUT OF COURSE, IT’S REALLY LARD TO FIND ANYONE, CHRIS, WHO WILL EVADE CRITICISM, EVEN THE IDEA OF PICKING SOMEONE WHO CONDUCT THESE INVESTIGATIONS WILL STILL GET CRITICISM, BECAUSE IT’S HARD FOR SOME PEOPLE TO BELIEVE THAT THERE WILL EVER BE ENOUGH SPACE BETWEEN THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION AND THE FORMER PRESIDENT TO TRULY LOCK IN A LOOK OF INDEPENDENCE. BUT MERRICK GARLAND ALSO SAID THAT

IT WILL BE JACK SMITH’S DECISION FOR PROSECUTORIAL POWER, RATHER THAN GIVING ALL OF THE EVIDENCE OVER TO THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO DECIDE WHETHER OR NOT TO PROSECUTE, THAT WILL BE SOMETHING THAT HE WILL HAVE PROSECUTORIAL POWERS AND CERTAINLY PUTTING A LOT IN THE HANDS OF JACK SMITH TODAY. AND AS YOU POINTED OUT, ON THE JANUARY 6th PIECE, IT IS NOT EVERYTHING, PEOPLE WHO ARE ALREADY BEING TRIED, LIKE OATH KEEPER TRIAL IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW, IN DC, THOSE WILL CONTINUE, FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE PHYSICALLY THERE FOR THE INSURRECTION. THIS IS ABOUT MEDDLING WITH THE ELECTION,

AND EFFORTS TO CERTIFY, WHICH WE KNOW WERE ATTEMPTED TO BE OBFUSCATED, TO BE OVERTHROWN ON JANUARY 6th AND THAT IS THE PIECE THAT HE WILL BE TAKING ON. A VERY LARGE RESPONSIBILITY, CHRIS THAT JUST GOT PUT ON THIS MAN’S SHOULDERS TODAY. >> LET’S TALK A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT JACK SMITH, BECAUSE I DON’T THINK, AS JULIA SUGGESTS, YOU CAN OVERSTATE HARRY LITMAN, THE AMOUNT OF RESPONSIBILITY THAT HE IS TAKING ON. HE IS NO STRANGER IN BEING INVOLVED IN CONTROVERSIAL CASES, INVOLVED IN CONTROVERSIAL CASES, AND HE WAS INVOLVED WITH THE AMADOU DIALLA CASE AND A CASE

THAT BROUGHT UP DEEPLY FELT ARGUMENTS ABOUT RACE AND POLICING IN IMAGINE, AMADOU WAS AN IMMIGRANT SHOT 19 TIMES BY FOUR NYPD POLICE OFFICERS. THEY EVENTUALLY WENT TO TRIAL. AND WERE ACQUITTED. BUT THE AMOUNT OF CONTROVERSY THAT RAISED, THE AMOUNT OF POLITICS INVOLVED IN THAT, IT IS SOMETHING THAT I SUPPOSE YOU COULD SAY, HARRY LITMAN, AND TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW OF JACK SMITH, IN SOME WAYS PROBABLY LET HIM KNOW IN SOME SMALL WAY WHAT HE IS GETTING INTO, ESSENTIALLY. >> YES, THAT’S EXACTLY RIGHT. THAT WAS IN THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA, WHERE HE WAS FOR

NINE YEARS. HE’S GOT AN UNBELIEVABLY PANORAMIC RESUME, STARTING FROM BEING IN THE STATE SYSTEM IN MANHATTAN, ALL THE WAY TO THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM, AND ONE OF THE POSTS THAT JULIA MENTIONED THAT IS IMPORTANT HERE, HE WAS THE ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY IN TENNESSEE. HOW THE HECK DOES SOMETHING LIKE THAT HAPPEN TO A MAINLY NEW YORKER? IT HAPPENED, AND THIS HAPPENED TO MUELLER AS WELL, THERE IS A PROBLEM SPOT IN THE DEPARTMENT, THEY NEED TO PUT SOMEBODY IN THERE THAT EVERYBODY TRUSTS, TO GET THE JOB DONE, WHILE THEY FIGURE IT OUT, IT’S NOT LIKE HE KNOWS THE

SENATORS FROM TENNESSEE. THE DEPARTMENT INSTALLS JACK SMITH. THAT SHOWS THEIR GENERAL CONFIDENCE IN HIM. HE ALSO HEADED THE PUBLIC INTEGRITY SECTION. THE SPECIAL SECTION CHARGED WITH DOING POLITICALLY CHARGED PROSECUTIONS, AGAINST POLITICAL FIGURES, SAY IN STATE OR LOCAL PLACES. SO HE KNOWS HOW TO DO ALL OF THOSE THINGS. BUT IMPORTANTLY, A PRETTY LOW PROFILE. NOT UNLIKE ROBERT MUELLER. NOT THE KIND OF GUY WHO ANYONE ON THE STREET WILL HAVE HEARD OF, BUT EVERYONE WITHIN THE DEPARTMENT WILL. I’M SURE OPPOSITION RESEARCH IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IS ALREADY GOING ON. BUT YOU CANNOT GET SOMEONE WHO COMBINES

MORE SORT OF BROAD EXPERIENCE AND RESPECT WITH NO

%d bloggers like this: