Jack Sm Smith News Today

Yesterday by the department of justice for what happened in january 6 and also for the possible mishandling of these documents. he is still being investigated today and will be investigated tomorrow for january 6 and also the potential mishandling of documents. that investigation has just moved to a different supervisor. so, lets begin our coverage now with cnns senior justice correspondent, evan perez. evan, lets get the facts here. what the attorney general merrick garland say about these two ...

They intersect, including a possible conspiracy to obstruct justice. its important that the attorney general, twice in that statement, used the term obstruct and also destruct in terms of the records. i think what is apparent also, he wants to expedite this case, not slow it down. and often its been donald trump who has slowed down the investigations around him because he would like to delay them rather than have the possibility of an indictment coming down. i think we dont know where its going ...

In his response to the appointment of a special prosecutor last hour, former president trump called the investigations into his actions surrounding january 6, plus the investigation into his potential mishandling of classified materials, he called the investigations appalling and horrendous and a horrendous abuse of power. he said he is one of the most honest and innocent people ever in this country. thats just a very small sampling of what trump just had to say. perspective now from someone who...

Obstruction into the investigation, obstruction. jessica, we do know that there are things happening in these investigations with people surrounding the former president. what is the appoint of the special counsel? how might that affect them? >> as carrie mentioned, this has been ongoing, wide ranging. this shouldnt change too much of the dynamic. these investigations have been ongoing for months. what it could change is that things could really ramp back up because were past the election now. t...

So, merrick garland -- >> nonsense, john. >> merrick garland, the appearance of a conflict. how necessary was it, do you think, for a special counsel? >> i think the attorney general had a lot of discretion here to make the decision for a special counsel. he didnt have to do it. he wasnt required by law to do it. but its in his good judgment to do so, and he gave the reasons for it. in particular, the timing with respect to the former presidents announcement that he is now a candidate and the fa...

Justice department believes that there is reason to keep investigating on an expedited basis, which is one of the words used in the announcement of the special prosecutor. but also i think anybody, layman or professional, lawyer, whatever, who has really followed these two events, its very difficult to see how any prosecuting authority, whether it is a special prosecutor, the justice department, can fail to not go forward with further investigation. there is obviously -- lets take a look at the ...

Days. so, there is nothing to indicate that this was about to go away. and certainly not anymore, right, because of the former presidents decision to announce that hes running for office for a third time. the justice department says that they needed to appoint a prosecutor, a special prosecutor, to oversee them. now, as you pointed out, both things are ongoing. one of them is looking at the former president and his allies efforts to impede the transfer of power after his loss in the 2020 electio...

Many people had never heard of jack smith before a few hours ago. whats his background. >> john, look, when we reported just a few weeks ago that the justice department was looking at making this decision, we started making calls to figure out who you could possibly get. and this is the guy they ended up. and he is a war crimes prosecutor. he has been working out of the hague, investigating war crimes in kosovo. hes a former prosecutor in tennessee, federal prosecutor in tennessee, also ran publ...

Weaponized department of justice. would you like me to talk about that? larry, would you like me to talk about that? this horrendous abuse of power is the latest in a long series of witch hunts, started a long time ago. i thought the investigation with the document hoax was dying or dead or over, and the investigation into january 6 and my very peaceful and patriotic speech -- remember, peaceful and patriotically -- was dead, especially after the record setting 40-point loss of liz cheney in the...

Immediately. >> its interesting we heard the former president complaining about this. if you go on twitter, which does still exist as of tonight, i saw just as many lefties complaining about the fact that the attorney general is appointing a special counsel because they think its going to slow it down. the attorney general, he actually says, he made this appointment to prevent the appearance of a conflict of interest. >> right. look, i think merrick garland may have said that, and i think he rea...