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FIRST ON FOX: Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized the Justice Department for appointing a special counsel to investigate former President Trump, saying the decision “saddens” him, while urging the DOJ to “do their job” and deliver “apolitical justice.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday appointed former Justice Department official Jack Smith to the role of special counsel to investigate the entirety of the criminal probe into the retention of presidential records held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. Smith will also oversee the DOJ’s investigation into the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
AG GARLAND NAMES SPECIAL COUNSEL TO INVESTIGATE TRUMP ON MAR-A-LAGO DOCUMENTS, JAN. 6
“They’ve been investigating this for an awful long time,” Pompeo told Fox News Digital during an interview on the sidelines of the Republican Jewish Coalition annual conference in Las Vegas on Friday. “To now hand this over to a special counsel who is likely to continue to investigate it for a long time—makes no sense to me.”
FBI agents seized classified records from former Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago during the agency’s unprecedented raid on Aug. 8, including some marked as top secret, according to a warrant and property receipt. Trump and his legal team have said records held at Mar-a-Lago had been declassified when Trump was in the White House. The Justice Department argues that Trump unlawfully retained national defense information at his home.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sits down for an interview with Fox News Digital on the sidelines of Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting, on Nov. 18, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada
(Fox News)
But Pompeo told Fox News Digital Friday that he doesn’t “like special counsels in the first instance.”
TRUMP SAYS HE ‘WON’T PARTAKE’ IN SPECIAL COUNSEL INVESTIGATION, SLAMS AS ‘WORST POLITICIZATION OF JUSTICE’
“I think if you’re going to prosecute, then the Justice Department has the responsibility,” Pompeo,…
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