Former President Donald Trump blasted Attorney General Merrick Garland’s decision to appoint a special counsel to investigate him and told Fox News that he is “not going to partake” in the investigation.
Garland on Friday appointed John L. Smith as special counsel to investigate Trump. Smith will look into Trump’s handling of documents marked classified that the FBI seized during a raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August and determine whether criminal charges should be brought against the former president.
Trump blasted the special counsel’s appointment as “the worst politicization of justice in our country” during an interview with Fox News Digital on Friday.
Trump noted the latest investigation comes after two “fake impeachments” and former special counsel Robert Muller finding no evidence of criminal conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 presidential election.
“I have been going through this for six years — for six years I have been going through this, and I am not going to go through it anymore,” Trump said. “And I hope the Republicans have the courage to fight this.”
“I have been proven innocent for six years on everything — from fake impeachments to Mueller, who found no collusion, and now I have to do it more? It is not acceptable. It is so unfair. It is so political,” Trump said.
“I am not going to partake in it,” Trump added. “I’m not going to partake in this.”
Trump also pointed out that Garland’s appointment of the special counsel came just days after he officially announced his 2024 presidential campaign.
“I have never heard of such a thing. They found nothing. I announce and then they appoint a special prosecutor. They found nothing, and now they take some guy who hates Trump,” Trump said. “This is a disgrace and only happening because I am leading in every poll in both parties.”
“It is not even believable that they’re allowed to do this. This is the worst politicization of justice in our country,” Trump continued.
Trump also called out President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) for investigating him while staying silent on the various controversies surrounding Biden and his son, Hunter.
“Hunter Biden is a criminal many times over and nothing happens to him,” Trump told Fox News. “Joe Biden is a criminal many times over — and nothing happens to them.”
Trump urged the GOP to “stand up and fight” against the DOJ’s special counsel appointment.
“It is unfair to the country, to the Republican Party, and I don’t think people should accept it. I am not going to accept it,” Trump said. “The Republican Party has to stand up and fight.”
Special counsel Smith is the Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, which is “one of the most highly politicized, left-wing departments within the agency,” according to Breitbart News’s Joel Pollak.
In a statement issued Friday, Smith said he will “conduct the assigned investigations, and any prosecutions that may result from them, independently and in the best traditions of the Department of Justice.”
Smith also pledged to “exercise independent judgment” and “move the investigations forward expeditiously and thoroughly to whatever outcome the facts and the law dictate.”
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