Special prosecutor Jack Smith addresses reporters Tuesday in Washington after a grand jury indicted former president Donald Trump. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Bill O'Leary
The Justice Department has been reluctant to disclose the names of individual prosecutors on Smith’s team, citing a rise in threats against them that has prompted extensive security precautions. That’s a departure from the practice of former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who confirmed which prosecutors were investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and potential ties to the Trump campaign if reporters asked.
Meanwhile, millions of Americans are looking to the teams to prove that the Justice Department can handle a defendant who is the former president, wanting the prosecutors to ensure that Trump - accused of obstructing an election and mishandling highly sensitive national secrets - is not treated as if he is above the law.
“There are people who are going to accuse you, the case and the office of having political motives in every single case,” said Dan Schwager, a former federal prosecutor who worked in the public integrity unit and is now an attorney at American Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog group. “So the specialty is knowing how to let the facts and laws reign supreme over any political consideration.
J.P. Cooney, another member of the special counsel’s 2020 election team, worked as Hulser’s deputy at public integrity and had also worked with Smith in the unit. Before joining the probe, he frequently worked cases related to national security in Maryland. In 2017 he prosecuted a National Security Agency computer developer who removed a huge amount of highly classified national defense information and stored it at home. And he successfully prosecuted members of a white supremacist group, known as the Base, on gun-related charges.
Harbach also prosecuted former congressman Rick Renzi, a Republican from Arizona, on corruption and money-laundering charges. Renzi was sentenced to three years in prison. Edelstein worked for Bratt at Justice Department headquarters and was a lead prosecutor against Winner, a former National Security Agency contractor who pleaded guilty to mishandling government secrets and was sentenced to five years in prison. David Aaron, a former prosecutor who worked with Edelstein on that case, said she is known to have an encyclopedic knowledge of all the evidence in her cases, easily able to refer to any previous court filing.
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