Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday night wrestled with every possible response to the appointment of a special counsel to investigate him — from declaring that he is one of the most “honest and innocent” people to suggesting that any new charges it could be “double punishment”.
At one point, after hearing Trump’s speech, Evan Pérez, CNN’s chief justice correspondent, said he was “just making it up.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday appointed a special counsel to oversee the Justice Department’s investigation into classified documents hidden at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, which had been moved there by the White House at the end of Trump’s tenure.
The special counsel — former Justice Department official Jack Smith — will also oversee ongoing investigations into Trump’s role in last year’s January 6 insurrection and efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election.
Trump called the decision to appoint a special counsel “horrible”, the Biden administration “extremely corrupt” and the Department of Justice “weaponized”. He called Smith “the super radical left”.
Trump’s first key point about himself was that he cannot be accused of anything because he is “one of the most honest and innocent people in our country.”
When that didn’t clear things up completely, Trump suggested that any impeachment against him could be considered double jeopardy because he has been removed from office twice, including for his role in last year’s insurgency. “Isn’t that a kind of double jeopardy?” he asked his supporters.
Earlier, the same theory was presented by Fox News host Geraldo Rivera.
Double jeopardy – which prevents people from being retried in cases where they hit – does not apply to the charges.
Trump also insisted that the Justice Department’s investigation into classified White House documents he hid at Mar-a-Lago is “dead or dead or done.”
“The former president is just making it up,” CNN’s Pérez told the network’s fact-checker, John Berman.
“There is nothing to say that this was a dead investigation or that it was abandoned. Far from it,” Pérez explained. “People around him have received subpoenas in the last few days. So there is nothing to indicate that this has gone away.”
He continued “over and over and more of what he said was misleading; some were completely false,” Berman said.
Earlier in the day, an angry Trump told Fox News that he “will not participate” in any special counsel investigation and blasted the nomination as “the worst politicization of justice in our country.”
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