On November, Attorney General Merrick Garland selected experienced prosecutor Jack Smith to be the special counsel overseeing two criminal probes into former President Donald Trump. By 18, 2022, Garland sought to prevent any perception that the investigations were partisan-driven. However, President Trump and some of his supporters began to attack the probes, maintaining that they were biased. In an online post where his emotions were running high, the prior chief executive expressed that he would not receive a just treatment from Smith. Nonetheless, it was the duty of Garland to assign the latter person to ensure equity and legality. Smith was declared to be placed in charge of the Department of Justice examinations involving Trump’s participation in the events of January. Garland spoke of Smith as having “gained a reputation as a fair and tenacious prosecutor” pertaining to 6 insurrection and Trump’s management of sensitive governmental documents. Smith, who recently worked in the International Criminal Court at The Hague on war-related offences, pledged that he would “proceed with the probes independently and wherever the facts and laws lead”. From the viewpoint of a political scientist who works in the area of presidential systems, it appears that while special counsels may be intended to work independently, reality suggests that they do not act completely independently. Jack Smith, recently assigned as Special Counsel, was formerly a prosecutor at the Kosovo Specialists Chambers court located in The Hague in November.
