There’s a long history of specially appointed prosecutors being tasked with investigating political scandals, including Iran-Contra during Ronald Reagan’s presidency and Whitewater during Clinton’s. But a statute that allowed for the appointment of an independent counsel outside the Justice Department expired in 1999 following a bruising and politically divisive investigation that resulted in Clinton’s impeachment by the House but acquittal in the Senate.
Though the attorney general retains final authority over a special counsel’s decisions, special counsels do have the latitude to bring whatever cases they see fit. They are funded by the Justice Department, can bring on their own prosecutors, are entitled to office space and are often expensive.
Mary McCord, a former Justice Department national security official, said she expected Smith to weigh the Mar-a-Lago facts and evidence just as before. The possibility that that case could end with an indictment existed well before the appointment of a special counsel, thanks to the public release of a search warrant affidavit that laid out possible crimes.
In that case, FBI officials have said that in addition to the unlawful retention of national defense information, they’re also investigating . Trump representatives for months failed to give the classified documents back to the National Archives and Records Administration and, according to the Justice Department, did not fully comply with a subpoena that sought their return.
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