If you have an abiding interest in American history, as I do, I suggest that you pay close attention to what is happening in Washington D.C. as we speak. What you’re witnessing is probably the last special counsel or special prosecutor that will ever be appointed to investigate a president or prosecute a former president. What began in 1973 with the appointment of former Solicitor General Archibald Cox as a special prosecutor to investigate the “Watergate affair,” as it was popularly known, came to a screeching halt Monday when special counsel Jack Smith filed a motion to drop all January 6 charges against Donald Trump. Hours later, Judge Tanya Chutkin granted Smith’s motion and dismissed the four felony counts against Trump.
Not one, but two federal grand juries had indicted Trump for violating federal laws by attempting to get the results of the 2020 election overturned. The second grand jury was empaneled after the Supreme Court last summer issued its infamous decision in Trump v. United States essentially giving him immunity from prosecution for anything he did while serving his first term in the White House. Oh, they dressed up the decision as best they could to make it seem like they hadn’t given Trump a get-out-of-jail-free card by creating two categories of presidential acts – official and unofficial – and saying the immunity applied absolutely to the first and presumptively to the last. But that was a joke all along, as Trump’s lawyers immediately filed for charges to be dropped against him, calling all of his actions as president official. With a Supreme Court containing six arch-conservative members, three of whom were appointed by Trump himself, there was little doubt which way the court would rule whenever Trump’s appeals reached them.
