‘Unfair to the country’: Trump bristles at special counsel appointment
Ryan King
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Former President Donald Trump vented rage and exhaustion at the appointment of a special counsel to decide whether or not he should be indicted.
Excoriating the special council as “unfair to the country,” Trump implored the Republican Party to “stand up and fight” for him while lamenting the string of investigations he has weathered during his time in the political limelight.
MERRICK GARLAND APPOINTS WAR CRIMES PROSECUTOR JACK SMITH AS TRUMP-FOCUSED SPECIAL COUNSEL
“I have been proven innocent for six years on everything — from fake impeachments to [former special counsel Robert] Mueller, who found no collusion, and now I have to do it more?” Trump said. “It is not acceptable. It is so unfair. It is so political,” Trump bemoaned to Fox News.
Attorney General Merrick Garland unveiled his appointment of war crimes prosecutor Jack Smith as special counsel Friday, effectively punting the decision of whether to indict Trump for crimes in two major investigations.
Smith must weigh criminal charges against Trump on whether he interfered with the “transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election” or broke laws in the “ongoing investigation involving classified documents.”
“I have been going through this for six years — for six years I have been going through this, and I am not going to go through it anymore,” Trump added. “I am not going to partake in it.”
Garland has long been caught in the political crosshairs between Republicans and Democrats on Trump. Progressives have moaned that he hadn’t been forceful enough in the Department of Justice’s Jan. 6 investigations, while conservatives have accused him of weaponizing the DOJ. With the Republican takeover of the House looming, he was poised to face an uptick in congressional scrutiny.
Behind the scenes, some allies of Trump surmised an early 2024 campaign debut could shield him from legal scrutiny, according to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman. But that appears to have catalyzed the special counsel appointment.
“Based on recent developments, including the former president’s announcement that he is a candidate for president in the next election and the sitting president’s stated intention to be a candidate as well, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel,” Garland explained at a press conference Friday.
Trump has long denied wrongdoing in the classified document saga, stressing a president can declassify material “even by thinking about it.” Federal authorities famously raided his Mar-a-Lago resort on Aug. 8 and have amassed roughly 200,000 pages‘ worth of documents, including ones bearing markings ranged from from “CONFIDENTIAL to TOP SECRET information,” per court records.
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Similarly, Trump has blasted inquiries on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. He also bemoaned that Hunter Biden, who is facing a federal investigation for alleged tax crimes and a purchase that he should have been barred from buying, hasn’t weathered the same level of scrutiny.
“Hunter Biden is a criminal many times over, and nothing happens to him,” Trump fumed. “Joe Biden is a criminal many times over — and nothing happens to them.”