Days after Donald Trump, a former president, announced his third run for office, the U.S. Department of Justice intensified two inquiries that could prove to be the biggest obstacles to his effort to return to Pennsylvania Avenue.
Veteran prosecutor Jack Smith is leading both DOJ inquiries as special counsel, looking into Trump’s involvement with the incident on January 6 and if he kept confidential records at his Mar-a-Lago residence.
Matt Whitaker, former acting attorney general, said that if you provoke a riot by saying go peacefully and patriotically to the Capitol, we have turned the First Amendment upside down. President Trump will not be very concerned or affected by that aspect of the inquiry.
In reaction to the special counsel, Trump is repeating criticisms he directed at Smith personally while the Mueller investigation was ongoing from 2017 to 2019. He told the press they looked everywhere, and now they take a Trump-hating man and put him in charge. This is an embarrassment and is only taking place because he is ahead in every poll for both parties.
It remains to be seen, added Whitaker, whether Jack Smith could employ the discipline and traditions of the Justice Department and, as a result, execute his job above the political fray.
Trump told news outlets that he would “not partake” in the DOJ investigations, despite Attorney General Merrick Garland’s assertion that the “exceptional circumstances” of a Trump-Biden rematch increased the urgency of the DOJ cases.
Whitaker, however, asserts that the former president might be in error. If Trump asked him, he would advise him to participate in his defense actively, Whitaker said. The president of the United States and, undoubtedly, Donald Trump could exercise executive privilege, but the average person cannot. He believes the matter needs to be decided. Therefore, Smith has a purpose.
According to Whitaker, if he was in the position of someone who needed to indict a case, he would want to know the why, the motive, the identity of the victim, and the extent of the harm done. Whitaker, however, contends that the DOJ may not possess the “smoking gun” necessary to arrest the former president, in contrast to previous Attorney General Bill Barr.
Additionally, the Biden administration is still unable to control the crisis at the southern border as the Trump legal challenges escalate. Prior to the deadline of December 21, 15 states filed a motion to extend Title 42 explosions. According to Customs and Border Protection, 2,693 migrants evade capture on average every day.
Whitaker also disclosed that although he had meetings with Biden administration cabinet members to identify answers, they were unsuccessful. He collaborated with the president, other members of the cabinet, and even legislators to develop a plan of action that addressed each of these problems. Although he believed that the sessions were productive, nothing eventually got done.