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Attorney General Merrick Garland launched a special counsel investigation into former President Donald Trump on Friday, the week before Thanksgiving, to ensure a permanent prosecution of public enemy number one on a third bid for the White House.
The special counsel, Garland said, will take over the investigation of Trump’s purported mishandling of presidential records and probe whether Trump can be held criminally liable for the events that unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021. The former is a desperate follow-up to the latter after the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 emerged empty-handed from an 18-month investigation.
“It is in the public interest to appoint a special prosecutor to independently manage an investigation and prosecution based on recent developments, including [Trump’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,” Garland told reporters at an afternoon press conference.
Trump officially declared his candidacy to reclaim the Republican Party’s presidential nomination this past Tuesday. Just as his administration was handicapped early on by a special counsel investigation probing left-wing conspiracies of Russian collusion, his third presidential campaign has already been hit with the same playbook.
The timeline of Garland’s announcement three days after Trump’s announcement was surely a political calculation.
