Monday, November 21, 2022

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington

Meet Jack Smith.

Jack Smith is the new special counsel tapped to investigate Donald Trump in the events leading up to the January 6 insurrection and the confiscation of government documents at Mar-A-Lago.  Smith has held numerous prosecutorial positions, including a prosecutor of the Eastern District of New York, an assistant (and later acting) United States Attorney in the Middle District of Tennessee, and a prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.  Smith, now in the Netherlands as I type this, is coming home to investigate another international criminal.
"Mr. Smith is the right choice to complete these manners in an evenhanded and urgent manner," Attorney General Merrick Garland said upon appointing him, and a friend of his ,Edward J. Loya, Jr., added, "When it comes to investigating allegations of sophisticated federal criminal matters, Jack Smith is the gold standard."  Garland made the appointment with awareness of needing to depoliticize the investigation into Trump because of a possible (likely?) Biden-Trump rematch in 2024. 
Smith must be a good prosecutor, mainly because Trump and his minions are bashing the appointment. Do they have reason to be worried?  Well, here's what Smith himself said:
"I intend to conduct the assigned investigations, and any prosecutions that may result from them, independently and in the best traditions of the Department of Justice. The pace of the investigations will not pause or flag under my watch. I will exercise independent judgement and will move the investigations forward expeditiously and thoroughly to whatever outcome the facts and the law dictate."
Oh, yeah, they have reason to be worried, all right. 

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