Evening summary
That’s it for me tonight. Here are some highlights from what we covered this afternoon:
US attorney general Merrick Garland appointed veteran prosecutor Jack Smith to examine whether Donald Trump should be prosecuted. The third independent prosecutor in five years, Smith will look specifically at Trump’s interference with the transfer of power and his retention of classified documents and other presidential records.
The announcement came three days after Trump announced he was again running for president, a move that prompted Garland to act.
Trump rebuked the appointment of a special prosecutor and said he “won’t partake” in the investigation. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Joe Biden was not made aware of the decision before the announcement.
Conservatives have continued their quest to stop Kevin McCarthy from becoming speaker in the Republican-run House next year, while Democrats’ transition away from Nancy Pelosi’s leadership appears to be running much more smoothly.
Republicans on the House judiciary committee want homeland security chief Alejandro Mayorkas and a host of top officials to testify. Expect the situation at the southern border to be a major topic of questioning for the GOP.
Have a great evening!
Updated
Trump is planning to make an official statement in response to the special counsel appointment, Reuters reports, scheduled for 8.30pm eastern.
He has already spoken out against the move and several ongoing investigations, telling Fox News that he “won’t partake” and posting on social media that “The Democrat Department of ‘Justice’ had nothing, except Trump haters, so they just appointed a Special Prosecutor to go after me further”.
The investigations prosecutor Jack Smith was appointed to oversee are two of several civil and criminal inquiries looking into the former president’s actions and affairs.
From Reuters:
FBI agents seized thousands of government records, some marked as highly classified, from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home during a court-approved Aug. 8 search. Investigators also are examining Trump for possible obstruction of the probe. Trump filed a civil lawsuit in an effort to delay the documents investigation and keep some records away from investigators.
The other investigation is a sprawling probe into a failed plot by Trump’s allies to overturn the 2020 presidential election by submitting batches of phony slates of electors to the U.S. National Archives and trying to block Congress from certifying Biden’s election victory.”
Updated
