as merrick garland just said. he is being entrusted to run these investigations, because of that independence of spirit. he's got 16 years of history with the justice department, and now, he's being entrusted as garland said, and i think this is important, chris, and i am a word parser, as you know, to complete these investigations, in an even-handed and urgent way. and i'm hearing merrick garland say we're not starting from scratch. jack smith does not expect to start from scratch. but rather, we are giving to jack smith the body of work completed thus far, and we are trusting him to take this over the finish line wherever that may lead. whether to indictment, or not. but this job now belongs to him to complete. and i think the word complete is really doing a lot of work there. for people like me, who wish that the department maybe had continued on its pagtd on its own. >> and i'll also bring in former u.s. attorney barbara mcquade, and can we talk a little bit about the timing of this, obviously, after the midte

out merrick garland is still in charge.k me through your expectation here. i understand there is no response yet from the white house but having covered them many times and former president trump of course, your expectation here. >> i don't think we will hear a whole lot. and let me walk you through the day so far, kristen. >> it's fair -- >> they can't, and this is part of what president biden campaigns on, when he was a candidate, the promise to have this, to allow the justice department to be independent. i happened to be at an event with president biden about the economy, when the news broke, and once we were ushered out of the room, i was among the reporters who shouted at the president, tried to get him to respond to this breaking news, he declined to comment. i can tell you a white house official said to me, d.o.j. makes decisions about its criminal investigations independently and we are not involved. so i would refer you to d.o.j. i expect that is about what we are going to hear from white house press secretary kri

what circumstances is merrick garland talking about here? because what has changed? >> good morning counselor, there is been a lot that's changed in the last week, one big thing in particular is that donald trump, the former president, has now become a presidential candidate. and again with donald trump, as often we are in chauncey territory. but i don't want to jump all over the attorney general, we can hear from him himself without how exactly he made this decision. >> criminal investigations, developments, including the former presidents announcement that he is a candidate for president in the next election. and the sitting president stated intention to be a candidate as well. i will conclude that it is in the public interest, to appoint a special counsel. such unemployment underscores the departments commitment to both independents, and accountability, and particularly sensitive matters. [silence] >> and katy, listening there to attorney general merrick garland, you get the sense of this really unprecedented moment in american history, he didn't really have much

in the end, doesn't merrick garland have to make a decision one way or the other? >> if you go by the strict guideline in the department of justice, the answer is yes. i don't think that's what he has in mind. i think he's really looking to have this special counsel be more in the world of cox who had total independence and really could do whatever he wanted. you know, as long as it wasn't anything completely off the wall. so i think what this special counsel is doing, he's not coming in with a staff. he's not bringing in lots of people. he's basically going with what is there and what his job is to look at the evidence and really decide whether he pulls the trigger on either of those two cases. so that i think is his limited role here and having said that, i think merrick garland is going to step back and let him make that decision as well he should. i mean, i think what you've got here is a conflict, i mean, and garland so much as said so. there is a conflict because his boss is running against donald trump who he's investigating and even though you can trust mer

so, is merrick garland letting donald trump dictate the terms of these investigations? arland would say, is he's following the regulations that are before him, as the attorney general. so, as you see the statute, that oversees special counsel's, they're overseeing conditions that need to be met for the attorney general to appoint a special counsel. one is a conflict of interest for the department to, and to is that it is in the public interest. he found that both of those things were met in this instance, in part, because we are not talking about president biden's political rival in, an upcoming presidential election. one of the questions before the justice department, speaks directly to the legitimacy of the 2020 election, in which biden, and trump, fought very hard for a win. as we know, president biden won, and president trump's continued to say, that was an illegitimate win. he has continued to foment that falsehood. however, part of what will be litigated in this investigation, leads the january 6th piece of that, is whether or not those claims were criminal. those

merrick garland referred to both. he referred to the scope as including efforts to subvert the election. that potentially includes states like georgia which have their own criminal investigation and you could now have a dual investigation looking into some of those questions. >> sandra: based on what jonathan just said, gerry baker from the wall street journal. you and i have copies of the order appointing smith as special counsel, line b, highlighted what jonathan turley just highlighted, the special counsel is authorized to conduct the ongoing investigation to whether any person or entity violated the law we have efforts to interfere with the lawful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or the certification of the electoral college vote held on or about january 6, 2021. huge legal implications. and considering the players involved, gerry, potentially huge political implications as well. >> yeah, i think -- that was the language i was struck by, too. not just about january 6th, you know, the pres

attorney general merrick garland today appointed a special counsel. nsel will determine if any charges are required in the two criminal investigations into donald trump. garland explaining his reasoning as a function of the, quote, extraordinary circumstances, as well as the ex-president's 2024 presidential campaign announcement earlier this week at mar-a-lago. joining you are coverage, congressman eric swalwell of california. he's a former impeachment manager during donald trump's second impeachment trial. i feel like you've been part of all of the efforts since the very beginning to get to the truth about sympathetic that pete strzok was just talking about, national security questions that were never answered about donald trump. and this feeling that another person has been tapped with doing what no one has been able to do thus far, and that is hold donald trump accountable or responsible, the way any of us would have been. >> nicole, it's an turkey appointment for what has been an historic crime spree by donald trump. and i get temptation to be frus

needs to spend some time getting up to speed, perhaps he moves at a generally quicker pace than merrick garlanddo you think garland would have done this if he didn't think that there was something that might stick? i mean, it seems to beg the question, you know, if there was no there there, why would he go forward with a special counsel? >> yeah, there's no way merrick garland appoints a special counsel if he thinks this is a big nothing. if he thinks there is absolutely no "there" there. i wouldn't conclude that merrick garland definitely thinks that this ought to be indicted, and therefore he brings in a special counsel. the key thing to know here is we now have a different person, the special counsel, who's going to make the at least initial decision whether to indict or not. ultimately, though, merrick garland will have to review that decision. now, the law says merrick garland, the ag, has to give great weight to whatever this special counsel recommends. merrick garland is very much by the book. unless there's something really out of the ordinary here, i expect to see the special counsel's

i think merrick garland was pretty clear about that today.is really that departments acknowledgment that he is a target of the investigation. and there is a lot of runway between being a target of investigation and actually being indicted. i want to be clear about that. and i'm not sure that at the end of the day it really comes down to whether there is enough evidence to actually indict a person. it's going to come down to this person being the former president of the united states, whether this is the wisest thing to do. >> yes. that's a great point. you can't run away from the judgment call inherent in this, right? all prosecutions are judgment calls. none of them are just -- it's not robots. and you don't feed it into a machine. every prosecution is a judgment call about the evidence, the crime, the case you can make. and so, chuck, what you are saying, and i'm really -- it really resonates with me is, and no amount of appointing a special counsel escapes the judgment call ultimately, that is a difficult one, that someone will have to mak

well, merrick garland is the timing? well, merrick garland is the country's — the timing?ountry's top law _ the timing? well, merrick garland is the country's top law enforcement . the country's top law enforcement officer, so basically if donald trump is going to be prosecuted for these alleged crimes, these investigations that are going on into him, it is merrick garland that makes that call. he has decided he is not going to be that guy. he held up is not going to be that guy. he held up short press conference today. he explained the reasons why, the challenges he is facing. donald trump has announced he's running for the white house, but notjust that, the white house, but notjust that, the man who oversees the department ofjustice, the man who hand—picked merrick garland for his job is the current president, joe biden, is also likely to return to the campaign trail, so you can see where that conflict of interest is. donald trump has accused the department of justice of a witchhunt, and if all of a sudden merrick garland says he will prosecute donald trump, you can see

ag merrick garland appoints a

we so -- ultimately merrick garland. so this is about the appearance of justice. the concern was if aidan and trump both ran for president, it might look for some people that the biden administration was trying to take down his political opponent. that would actually be the case because the attorney general will still -- without consulting the president and you way. >> there's another piece of, this which is merrick garland knows that the republican house is gonna try to drag him up to testify as often as possible. and they're gonna want to ask him questions about the investigation prosecution of donald trump. of course, he would refuse to answer those questions because it's an ongoing investigation. but now there is one other layer of his refusal to answer the questions which is he's not actually supervising the cases. >> that's an excellent point, remember, the last time around with mueller, he was under tremendous pressure within the department and the department backed a little. rob rosenstein actually gave information over to congress. they're going to want g

so, merrick garland -- >> nonsense, john. >> merrick garland, the appearance of a conflict.ry was it, do you think, for a special counsel? >> i think the attorney general had a lot of discretion here to make the decision for a special counsel. he didn't have to do it. he wasn't required by law to do it. but it's in his good judgment to do so, and he gave the reasons for it. in particular, the timing with respect to the former president's announcement that he is now a candidate and the fact that the current president has indicated all of his intentions to run to. so, what the attorney general is concerned about is the appearance of a conflict, the appearance of impartiality. so, i think his decision to move forward with the special counsel is absolutely defensible if it wasn't absolutely required. >> so, jessica, what do we know about how jack smith -- i suppose, how and even where, he's going to be operating? >> well, interestingly, john, he will not be operating within main justice here in washington, d.c., as he's following the same steps his other special counsel. he will

you have the attorney general, merrick garland, here touting the seditious conspiracy verdict vowing hold others accountable if this press conference that evan attended. how much do you think these convictions embolden the justice department? what is garland telegraphing here about upcoming trials? >> i think they embolden the justice department a lot. i've known merrick garland over 30 years since we were young lawyers starting out in d.c. this is an unusual victory lap for him. if you have any question about the relationship of the oath keeper's case to donald trump's potential liability, including on some of the same possible crimes, sedition -- seditious conspiracy, the attorney general talked about it when talking about the special counsel. >> how worried should he be? >> it's not the comments alone. it's the substantial evidence that like the oath keepers defended that didn't enter the capitol that he was a significant part of events that may confer criminal liability he should be worried about the facts and the law, but also the resolve that garland, on behalf of doj, is signa

a guy named merrick garland. he's going to get all the same accusations because we know trump and his base will always attack anyone who goes against donald trump's wishes. it doesn't matter if it's merrick garland. it doesn't matter if it's jack smith. it doesn't matter if it's trump's own vice president, as we sadly learned two years ago. >> you know, and exactly. very well said. i know you have to go. i really appreciate you making some time to make those very, very important points. thank you very much, sir. really appreciate you. come back any time. and jill, i'm going to go to you on the point neil just made. merrick garland makes this decision, sort of trying to make it sound apolitical. number one, there is an investigation of hunter biden that's floating around there. doesn't that mean that any investigation that involves anyone named biden also needs to go to special counsel, number one? and number two, this is how republicans are reacting. ted cruz tweeting, joe biden is completely weaponizing the depa

that's definitely a brilliant move by merrick garland. it is now, you know, out of his hands, and whichever way it goes he no longer has to bear the brunt of the decision-making on this. the hypocrisy is what is offensive. it's not a brilliant move for the department of justice. i've never been a fan of special prosecutors. i've said that for a long time. all of the department of justice are special prosecutors. i was not a fan when starr was appointed, i was not a fan when mueller was, but the reality is you have to ask yourself, how do you under this criteria, appoint this special prosecutor, and not have done it in the biden situation, where you have an insider on a conspiracy involving hunter biden, and funds if you believing to the big guy. how do you not appoint it in that circumstance but you do here? >> martha: it's a question that maybe is not answered yet. jonathan was also speaking about this, saying there's a need for a special counsel in that situation as well, pretty much for the same reasons that the department of justice h

i think merrick garland made a discretion decision.he department handled it for two years, could have continued to handle it but he thinks this would promote public confidence. it remains to be seen if that's the case. >> you wouldn't have done this? >> my inclination given the investigation had been going on for some time and given the stage which they've reached, is that i probably would not have. i just can't tell from the outside. >> from where you sit, does the appointment of a special counsel indicate at least a willingness on merrick garland's part to go ahead with the prosecution or is that overreading the decision? >> i think what it indicates is that, you know, despite the fact the department has been at this for some time, almost two years on the january 6th investigation, close to a year of the mar-a-lago investigation, that they still believe that they have a viable potential case. it doesn't mean they made a decision to go forward. but it certainly is an indication they believe it's a possibility. >> now, one case that's

not just for appearances, that is not what merrick garland is all about. he is not into performance art and in fact, we have already seen the president has made up claims that this nonpartisan, non political special counsel was somehow a lack did. the that's not true, the reason that it makes sense that it will actually speed things up and the circumstance because merrick garland and lisa monaco's deputy are running a department up 115,000 employees. they have hundreds and in fact thousands of investigations and prosecutions going on around the world. they cannot engage in day-to-day coordination's, tactical decisions, which witnesses to be called before the grand jury? to make the charge for the mar-a-lago documents and mar-a-lago? or because the documents were stolen in washington. we bring those in washington post? all of those decisions need to be coordinated by somebody and that somebody is jack smith. he has extraordinary experience, he is very aggressive. nobody can question his objectivity. and without, him there really is no head of that process.

. >> plus his criticism of merrick garland. >> i have great concerns about his judgment in the leadershipjustice department. >> and his believe on the supreme court's was the singlemost achievement. >> i celebrate that from really the depths of my heart. >> the former vice president opens up, as he considers his own run for the white house. >>> joining miss is "new york times" peter baker. republican strategist brendan buck, kimberly atkins stohr, and ana -- and if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." >> announcer: this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >>> good sunday morning, we have following the breaking news reports of a shooting overnight at a gay nightclub in colorado spring, colorado. at least five are dead, another 18 so far are wounded. police say the suspect was injured, is in custody, currently receives treatment at a local hospital. the fbi is already on the scene and assisting local law enforcement. the club writes lq is devastated by the senseless attacks on our community. we thank the quick reactions of heroic customers who subdued the gunman. stay tuned to nbc news for

attorney general merrick garland announcing he's appointing a special council to oversee the criminal investigation of trump's role in the january 6 insurrection and attempts to overturn the 2020 election as well as the probe of the classified documents seized from his mar-a-lago estate. here is garland explaining this extraordinary move. >> based on recent developments, including the former president's announcement that he is a candidate for president in the next election, and the sitting president's stated intention to be a candidate as well, i have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel. >> the attorney general is naming former acting u.s. attorney jack smith as special counsel. smith is a career prosecutor who currently serves as the chief prosecutor for the special court of the hague where he investigated war crimes. garland said the appointment will not slow down the pace of the investigations which cnn has learned have ramped up here in recent weeks with prosecutors in both cases sending out multiple new subpoenas to witnesses. donald trump is

unpacking merrick garland's big announcement.he former president be handling this news? plus a familiar face who might be auditioning for for trump's vice president, omarosa right there -- will explain it all for you coming up. will explain it all for yo coming up. coming up. the drummer, the dribbler, and the day-dreamer... the dribbler's getting hands-on practice with her chase first banking debit card... the drummer's making savings simple with a tap... ...round of applause. and this dreamer, well, she's still learning how to budget, so mom keeps her alerts on full volume. hey! what? it's true! and that's all thanks to chase first banking. freedom for kids. control for parents. one bank with tools for both, all with no monthly service fee. chase. make more of what's yours. (vo) with verizon, you can now get a private 5g network. so you can do more than connect your business, all with no monthly service fee. you can make it even smarter. now ports can know where every piece of cargo is. and where it's going. (dock worker) right

>>> happening now, attorney general merrick garland appoints a special counsel to oversee the sprawling federal criminal investigations into donald trump. the announcement prompted, in part, by the former president's decision to launch a 2024 white house campaign. up on capitol hill tonight, the new democratic leadership team is taking shape after nancy pelosi's decision to step aside. the house speaker giving her blessing to the new generation running to lead the party. >> also tonight, new tensions on the korean peninsula, after north korea test launches a new type of long-range missile with the potential to reach the mainland united states. we're getting reaction from u.s. national security officials. >> welcome to our view ners in e united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> let's get right to our top story tonight, a special counsel now taking over the u.s. justice department's probes into former president donald trump. our senior justice correspondent, evan perez, is standing by with new information. tell us what triggered this appoin

jackie: jack smith in charge of investigation reports to merrick garland.ck garland is not supposed to be involved in it although he has authority to remove jack smith. having said that he has a pretty good reputation. your thoughts on the choice -- >> seems like a reasonable choice. i mean, this is a guy who is prosecuted before. he's familiar with national security issues, you know, by all accounts, he's a straight shooter. at the same time it's important to keep in mind as you noted that merrick garland isn't completely disengaged from this, to the contrary to the fact that he will keep one hand on the tiller and ultimately his decision, merrick garland's decision whether or not they indict former president trump. the independent counsel gives you some independence but make no mistake merrick garland is still steering the ship. jackie: got it. tom dupree, thank you so much. >> thank you, jackie. jackie: republicans winning narrow majority this weekend, meanwhile house speaker nancy pelosi announcing she will not seek reelection for leadership position so

this is before merrick garland made his announcement. this is what he said about the case involving the mishandling of classified documents at mar-a-lago. >> i personally think that they probably have the basis for legitimately indicting the president. i don't know, i'm speculating, but given what has gone on, i think they have the evidence that would check the box. they have the case. >> do you think they will? >> i think it's becoming increasingly more likely. >> you said that it could be pretty soon. when you talk about that, i talking several weeks, a few months, what is the soonest? because the way he talks about it, it's almost like it's a foregone conclusion. >> i think it could be a few weeks, a couple of months. they do need to move fairly quickly but as i said, any case that they would bring that relates to the documents themselves and the improper taking and storage retention and so on, they would want to bring any obstruction charges along with that as well so i think they will need to wrap that up. maybe a matter of six week

we heard merrick garland respond to a question about this earlier today.a listen to what he had to say. >> we would like to have all the transcripts and all the other evidence collected by the committee so that we can use it in the ordinary course of their investigations. >> are you satisfied that you have had the access that you need or -- >> we are asking for access to all of the transcripts and that's really all i can say right now. >> andrew, do you think that it's a mistake for the committee to wait for doj to have everything until it's released publically? >> fascinating exchange between the ag and evan perez. he has repeated the arguments he's making to the committee without complaining about their lack of response. there's no question that the committee's hesitance in turning over this massive amount of material is making the doj's job harder. that have to get that stuff not to just review it but to understand the strength or weaknesses of the witnesses. so it's crucial to them. they are pressing as hard as they can. and the committee is keeping th

merrick garland has proven to be too much judge and not enough prosecutor.not happy with the case. with the pace that he has set. it can only quicken, in my opinion, under the leadership of jack smith. >> all, right well you know what? paul butler, glenn kirschner, you are all the right former prosecutors to talk about this with today. thank you for kicking us off. coming up next, i don't have another former prosecutor, but i have former california senator barrasso, and they are talking about the capitol hill, speaker pelosi stops the site for the next generation of leadership. but first, our best, my colleague richard louis is here for today's other top news stories. hi. >> back at you, simone. these are the stories we are watching for you right now. western new york state is digging itself out from record-breaking snow. parts of erie county saw 60 inches and a foot and a half more still possible. this is what the buffalo bills tweeted from their stadium, take a look at this, so much snow. their game tomorrow was forced to move to detroit. all right, ticket

now we have a new boogeyman. >> well, merrick garland. i think they've always thought that merrick garland was darth vader to them. if you saw merrick garland today, he hardly appears to be a darth vader. i think he'll become more of one. you'll see republicans wanting to do investigations. i'm not sure that's exactly what the public voted for. in fact, they did not vote for that, but donald trump has shown over and over again that he can play the victim card. look. this is -- this is somebody who was impeached twice and now had two special counsels working against him, he would say, you know? i would say that these are two special counsels investigating his behavior. one thing i want to point out though is that it's clear that the issue of obstruction is front and center here. perhaps in both of these investigations, and i remember back covering mueller -- bob mueller and the russia investigation that obstruction was also front and center. in the end, mueller did not make any disposition clearly on obstruction because this was a sitting

we can impeach merrick garland. >> the majority is everything. even if it's a one-seat majority.s everything. it gives us the ability to subpoena, to look into the administration, oversight, all of it. and so, yeah, things are going to change. >> i want to bring in ryan nobles on capitol hill, jake sherman, co-founder of punch bowl news, josh dausy is a reporter for "the washington post," donna edwards is also an msnbc political contributor and brendan buck saved as an aide to paul ryan and john boehner. it's great to have you here. let me start with nancy pelosi and the other democratic leaders. they're no strangers to political fights. as this new republican majority comes in, is there serious policymaking on their agenda, or is it, which it seemed to be a lot about yesterday at the press conference, just about investigations? >> i mean, serious policy could be on their agenda. nothing is going to get done because there's a democrat senate and a democratic president. you could put the policy agenda that has a chance of becoming law in a list of two or three items. not including

at the end of the day, merrick garland still owns this decision.t the end of the day, merrick garland makes the final determination. in other words i don't think he's purchasing that much distance between himself and the special counsel. >> walling off this investigating part of this. >> he is. to be clear, jack smith will be an independent actor up until the end when determinations and decisions have to be made. those decisions will rest with merit arlen. >> we have seen the justice department sensitive to election years in the past. >> the sooner the better. but the special counsel can outlive in administration. john durham was appointed special counsel by bill barr and is still working under the supervision of merrick garland. >> it's clear that a former president can be charged for a crime. >> absolutely. if they can prove it and the facts supported. -- supports it -- support it. >> thank you for your time. i'm vanessa ruiz. we will return to the full program after the lates headlines. donald trump responded tonight to that appointment of the s

department, but ultimately merrick garland will retain that power to agree or disagree. if he disagrees to override whatever recommendation mr. smith offers up. >> the attorney general said that the extraordinary circumstances demanded this, and he said that he identified, as a catalyst for this decision, the announcement or the declaration of former president trump as a 2024 candidate and the inclination from the current president to run for re-election. your reaction to what we just heard from ag garland? >> you know, victor, there really isn't a roadmap for a circumstance like this because of how remarkable the circumstances are. as the attorney general laid out, you have a former president being investigated by the justice department. to do this by the book, to conduct these investigations in a way that the textbooks would say to do it, yes, the attorney general had to appoint a special counsel here. what you have to do is take out even the appearance of impropriety. look, we all know -- i wasn't born yesterday. and within hours, the record of jack smith is going to

at the end of the day, merrick garland still owns this decision. at the end of the day, he makes the final determination. i don't think he's purchasing that much distance between himself and the special counsel. >> rolling off this investigative part. >> he is. jack smith will be an independent actor up until the end when determinations and decisions have to be made. those decisions will rest with merrick garland. >> doesn't need to happen befe the presidential election? we have seen a justice department sensitive to that. >> the way to think about it, the sooner the better. a special counsel can outlive and administration. john durham was appointed special counsel by bill barr. still working under the supervision of merrick garland. >> at this point, it is clear a former president can be charged for a crime? >> absolutely, if they can prove it and the facts support it. >> thank you for your help. >> in the other news, the u.s. and other nations offered an 11th hour proposal to rescue u.n. climate talks from failure. the focus was on compensating n

it's a regulation and this is how merrick garland was reading it.-ed, i made it clear, it's a nuanced call. but when he used those words, extraordinary circumstances, public interest, that's merrick garland seeing a text that gives him marching orders and as he read it, there were extraordinary circumstances. can't really debate that when he's, when the possible defendant is a presidential candidate. and is it in the public interest? the argument against it, the one that garland ultimately rejected, is, they are going to be calling this politicized in any event. there's really no way of reassuring. the last 24 hours does seem to reinforce that point. not just trump, but many republicans are saying the move itself is politicized, which is a little bit crazy. but that's the notion and the thing to understand is, this is garland reading the law that abides him and saying, we've got to do it for that reason. >> so, garland says that jack smith is going to exercise independent prosecutorial judgment on whether or not judges should be brought, harry. does

we can impeach merrick garland.es of impeachment against joe biden on monday. >> this is just political payback into americans even have the appetite for it? >> it's entirely political payback. it's extraordinary non substantive. these folks issued impeachment articles when they were in the minority over the last two year so there's no telling what they're going to do in january. there's some telling exactly how many will see but you know that there will be several impeachment articles. nobody in that audience even those who secretary mayorkas is who is here she the secretary of. it's not about substance. this is about silliness and politics and republicans trying to throw out some red meat even when there's nothing really underpinning it. one of the things that frustrates me most about how we talk about these things. we discuss them and so they're legitimate. why do we even talk about hunter biden's laptop as though it's a real thing? why do we honor the idea that hunter biden left a lock top at a shop and now it's

let's say merrick garland, if he stayed in that position, decided, ok, we will prosecute donald trump. trump is on the campaign trail. mr. biden is on the campaign trail if they get the nominations. you can see how the narrative would be used by mr. trump and tepps oor getting to the white house, and so forth. so, by putting in an independent prosecutor, mr. garland wants to insulate him from those accusations. but the truth is, it almost does not matter who they appoint as an independent prosecutor. as far as donald trump is concerned, his supporters are concerned, no one could ever possibly fair enough in their eyes to mr. trump. he released a statement, mr. trump. "totally expected political stunt by feckless politicized, weaponized, biden department of justice." >> which of the criminal investigations into mr. trump will the special counsel be overseeing? >> the first one is the january 6 capitol riots. they will be investigating to see if there a any criminal charges to be brought against donald trump who is accused of inciting a mob to try to overturn the 2020 20 election result

we know merrick garland is on a clock here, and merrick garland knows he's on a clock. donald trump knows he's on the clock. how much is trump thinking about that when he makes the announcement? >> well, i have not heard this directly from donald trump, so he has not said this to me but advisers of his have told me over the past 68 months that he does see running for president as one of his best offenses against these investigations, being a live political candidate, which he has been toying with. he keeps escalating, saying in his speeches. it's almost comical, i am very probably going to announce very time soon, et cetera. he's really been operating like a live political candidate for months now, and he does see that as a protective mechanism, obviously formalizing and announcing takes it to another level, but he's very cognizant of that i am told. >> it is worth noting that in his legal filings, trump has mentioned his potential candidacy. august 22nd, a filing requesting the special master. president donald j trump is the clear front runner in the 2024 presidential

go ahead. >> i was gonna ask you, talk us through merrick garland's decision. he was specifically the timing. why now? >> look, we need to keep in mind in the before being attorney general, eric garland was a judge. and so he's going to move very cautiously, very expeditiously through this process. and we also know, and there's no surprise, that since this announcement, there has already been political scrutiny over mr. smith. and that is to be expected. that's kind of the point of why donald trump announced his latest campaign for president now. he wants to paint this as his favorite phrase, a witch hunt. and he wants to argue that all the political investigations against him, excuse me, all the legal investigations against him are politically motivated. that is why, that is the dance that both trump and the department of justice is doing right now, post midterm elections. >> barb, you hinted at this after the news broke yesterday, but i would like for you to lay out for, me for our viewers the likelihood of charges being brought here. if the doj had planned to

if merrick garland was unwilling to do it, but knew it needed to be done, this is the result and this is where we find ourselves. >> so, you said something important there. the likelihood of charges coming down, i think that's the 1 million dollar question here that everyone is wondering with the appointed of the special counsel and the timing of that, when the doj would come forward. if they would actually come forward, something like that. before we get into the nuts of that conversation, barbara oked made a case on twitter this morning, which i thought was fascinating. while she says, essentially, she doesn't necessarily think there was a necessity for a special counsel, she says this does provide kind of an extra layer of independents this appointment of a special counsel from those that were appointed by this administration. also, more importantly, freeing the attorney general up on this team to focus on other things that are more important right now, we're not necessarily more important, but important nonetheless, one of which is voting rights. but do you make of those two argum

the man that runs the department justice is attorney general merrick garland, however, merrick garlandandpicked by president joe biden, so there have been a lot of accusations by dond trump and supporters tha this is a political witchhunt, because of merrick garland's position. so what you said today, in a very short press conference, that he has presented as special counsel to basically oversee the criminal investigations and decide whether donald trump should be prosecuted. by doing that, he made the point, it is because donald trump announced he is running for the white house, again, he did that two days ago. given that donald trump is doing that, it is very likely that the president, joe biden, who oversees that department, is also returning to the campaign trail, by taking himself out of that situation, what is try to do is about away any concerns and criticisms. samantha: do we know at this stage of a could have any impact on donald trump's abily to run for the presidency, which he announced he does intend to do in two years' time. nomia: i don't think anything changes legally. i

so that may have been merrick garland's calculus here. he's supposed to consider a special counsel if there's either a conflict of interest at the justice department or other extraordinary circumstances. and as he appointed out, when there's an investigation involving a former president who's now a candidate for president, that is an extraordinary circumstance. it may also be the case that members of congress are also under scrutiny. so that would also make it an extraordinary circumstance, in light of the number of members of congress, and the nature of the charges they're looking at here. i think it accomplished a few things in doing this. one is that extra measure of independence that should be there for anyone of good faith who actually looks at this. there is also the ability to endure the end of this administration. merrick garland and others in this administration will go when joe biden leaves the white house, but a special counsel will endure until someone actually fires him or his work is concluded. and i think most of us hope th

how do you think merrick garland reached this decision? and is this the right call?t is the right call, and i think he made a decision that the department of justice has to be seen as independent as it's investigating the former president who is now a candidate and maybe running against president biden, who, of course , appointed attorney general merrick garland, appointing a special counsel allows merrick garland to say some people may see a conflict of interest as this investigation continues. i don't want anyone to question why decisions were made. so i'm asking this person who was not appointed by president biden, who is not a political appointee to come and step forward and continue with these two really vitally important investigations , and the white house said that they did not know about this announcement in advance, so it's moving these two investigations to special counsel instead of the doj, mostly for appearances , or does it really create any changes in information flow in resources available or the investigators who are working underneath? the lead on

, merrick garland reports to the president of the united states.e to think that the special council is completely above reproach, completely unaffected by politics. that's a lie. in reality, they're tied. so the question for you, tiana, why, whether it is a potential special council that we should have for hunte the special council that we do have for trump, why isn't this person the most non-p nonpart a san person -- nonpartisan person we can find, i guarantee you can find someone that is no nonpartisan o can conduct the investigation. >> when robert mueller was appointed, people went back to his background, the fact he was a republican appointee, that was supposed to make the case he wasn't going to be biased against a republican president. because i think the tell is obvious, 72 hour thing, the fact that hunter biden is not subject to a special council, even though he is still under criminal investigation, even though we know he was taking 3-carat diamonds from china. maria: that's right. >> i think the working theory is that the 80-year-old joe

what happened here, according to merrick garland's speech, was the convergence of two events, former president trump's announcement of his new candidacy, and joe biden's earlier statements where he suggested he would seek the presidency. that, garland believes, creates a conflict of interest, and that that mandated his appointment of a special counsel in this case. the real concern is, does it slow the process down? now, you've got someone new getting into the mix. they have to stand up in office. that takes time in a bureaucracy. garland seemed fully aware of those concerns today, and he explicitly talked about that, saying that he would provide resources, that he expected jack smith to jump straight into the process, and interestingly, as you point out, appointing smith, who has recently been involved in the war crimes prosecutions in kosovo, he went to that investigation after it had been in progress for some period of time but before any indictments had been brought, seemed to jump into that one midstream and charge straight ahead. so one supposes garland may have been favorably

now this under attorney general merrick garland. the fbi under director christopher wray. in the report, house republicans assert that the fbi, quote, is broken, but stated that the problem is not with the frontline agents, the rank-and-file, but rather the politicized bureaucracy. joining us now to outline the report's findings, house judiciary committee ranking member jim jordan. if i'm a democrat, this election season, look deeply into this report, the things we've talked about, going back to the russia hoax, we now know early october that the fbi went to christopher steele, offered him a million dollars to prove his dossier was true. he couldn't do it. by the end of october 2016 they used it anyway i i in a fisa application. in january 2017, the main source says it's not true, it's all bar talk. what do they do? they put him on the payroll. i'm worried about how the fbi is politicized, and the doj is weaponized. how real will this investigation get? >> as real as it can be, as aggressive as we can possibly be, sean, because it's warranted, and we outline it in the repo