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The appointment of a special counsel to oversee the Justice Department’s investigations into former President Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (Calif.) decision to step down from Democratic leadership will likely dominate this week’s Sunday shows circuit.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Friday that he was appointing longtime prosecutor Jack Smith as special counsel to lead two of the Justice Department’s investigations — one into the former president’s potential mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and another into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
The appointment came just days after Trump officially announced his 2024 presidential campaign, setting himself up for a potential rematch with President Biden. Garland pointed to this dynamic in justifying Smith’s 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 said on Friday.
Former Vice President Mike Pence — who is set to appear on both NBC’s “Meet the Press” and CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday — described Garland’s appointment of a special counsel as “very troubling” in an interview with Fox News Digital on Friday.
