In the wake of Mueller, a new special counsel for Trump begins an inquiry.

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The Justice Department wants to steer clear of the mistakes made during the previous special counsel probe of Trump.

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Concerning several criminal inquiries investigating former president Donald Trump, new Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith has one distinct advantage: recent history.

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Smith is, in many ways filling the shoes of former FBI Director Robert Mueller, who was appointed in May 2017 to examine claims of connections between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.
Smith doesn’t have the same level of public recognition as Mueller, who previously held the positions of FBI director, US attorney in San Francisco, and head of the Justice Department’s criminal division before accepting the unique counsel position.
Meanwhile, Smith has almost three decades of prosecutorial experience, including two tours as an international war crimes prosecutor at the Hague and serving as a lawyer for state and federal administrations.

Mueller’s longer government service history turned out to be a double-edged sword. At the time of his special counsel appointment, he was 73 and 75 when he handed in his report.

Smith, 53, is unlikely to receive the same criticism as Mueller did about the fact that his finest years are behind him and that he reportedly allowed his deputies to play disproportionately large roles in decision-making. Additionally, Trump’s allies may find it more challenging to undercut him because of his low profile. Additionally, he has a track record of successfully prosecuting and convicting corruption cases, which may have attracted Garland to him and given Trump cause for concern.

Smith will encounter the following challenges and chances as he enters the challenging realm of the Trump investigations, according to POLITICO:

recalling Mueller

Smith may have Mueller’s biggest weakness: a recent investigation by a special counsel into Trump himself.

Mueller looked into Trump when he was inaugurated and had access to the Justice Department and the power that comes with being president, which Trump won’t have as a former president. Smith can also use the challenges Mueller experienced and the opposition he ran against from a Republican-led Congress supporting Trump to shape his strategy.

While in power, Trump waged an all-out PR offensive on Mueller and occasionally tried to remove him from the administration. Seizing on the political contributions some of his top advisers had given to Democrats, he and his allies attacked Republican Mueller and his staff as being anti-Trump leftists.

Smith’s personnel decisions will be extensively examined, and anybody he selects to handle the investigation’s daily operations will be ready for a Trumpian onslaught.

Beyond Attorney General Merrick Garland’s apparent praise for the present prosecution and investigative teams on Friday, there were hints that most of the career staff working on those cases are anticipated to stay in place and merely report to Smith.

Federal prosecutors in Alexandria, Virginia, were looking into possible foreign interference in the Trump campaign. One of those investigations included a look into Trump aide Michael Flynn’s connections to Turkey. Mueller’s inquiry absorbed both probes. According to officials who requested anonymity, the takeover caused considerable resentment among the prosecutors initially charged with such investigations.

However, Smith will gain this time because he knows Mueller’s weaknesses. Trump still has a powerful media platform, but he can no longer influence or pressure the investigation into him.

opposition on Capitol Hill

Smith, like Mueller, will be working with a Republican-led House, which takes control of the chamber on January 3 after the Democrats were narrowly defeated for the position. Despite the uncertainty surrounding the leadership elections, it is guaranteed that some of Trump’s closest allies will hold committee gavels and use them to impede Smith’s job seriously.

Friday, Smith received a sneak peek of what to expect from the GOP-controlled House. Shortly after Smith was appointed, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), anticipated to play a substantial and public role in the new GOP majority, tweeted: “IMPEACH MERRICK GARLAND!” She asked Republicans to withhold funding from the DOJ for the special counsel’s work.

House Republicans will use the Judiciary Committee to investigate what they call “politicization” within the Justice Department. They will make unsubstantiated accusations of prejudice in the Mar-a-Lago investigation and the department’s investigation of the disturbance at the Capitol on January 6.

Veteran House Republicans have already created a blueprint for how to fight back against a special counsel investigation of Trump, including Jim Jordan, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee. Along with the GOP-led intelligence committee in 2018, the panel exercised its oversight authority to pursue the Mueller investigation at every turn, summoning Justice Department officials, issuing subpoenas, and requesting information about the ongoing investigation, including documents like the “scope memo” that set out the rationale and scope of Mueller’s investigation.

After the announcement on Friday, several Republicans seemed to unite behind a new criticism of Garland: Where is the special counsel looking into Hunter Biden’s international dealings?

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas stated, “This is an acknowledgment of a conflict of interest by DOJ. Now accept the conflict of interest in the Hunter Biden probe and appoint a special counsel.”

Democrats immediately applauded the selection and said it was a necessary step to maintain the impression of objectivity in the DOJ’s investigations.

Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Dick Durbin said, “I am certain that Special Counsel Smith will pursue justice in these investigations without fear or favor, following the facts and the law wherever they lead” (D-Ill.).

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