(FRI 11/18/22)
(Nancy Pelosi steps down as House Democratic leader. Scroll down for details.)
Special Counsel to Investigate Trump – Attorney Gen. Merrick Garland has appointed veteran prosecutor Jack Smith as special counsel to oversee the Justice Department’s investigation of ex-President Trump’s involvement in the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol and his alleged mishandling of classified government documents, per NPR’s All Things Considered.
After Donald J. Trump announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election last Tuesday, and because of the “current president’s intention” to run for re-election in two years, “I have concluded it is in the public’s best interest to appoint a special counsel,” Garland said in his announcement.
Potential charges against Trump still will be up to the AG, Georgetown University Law Center Prof. Paul Butler told NPR. Butler has worked with Smith and calls him a “prosecutor’s prosecutor.” Smith currently is prosecuting war crimes from Kosovo at The Hague.
Too Late?: Trump’s remaining allies on Capitol Hill and in right-wing media have been slamming “President Biden’s attorney general” for months as a sort of pre-emptive strike. But critics on both the left and right of Trump’s involvement in January 6, and his storing of top secret documents at Mar-a-Lago have been calling for a more aggressive Justice Department investigation for nearly as long.
Upshot: There is pretty much nothing Garland could do to stop Fox News pundits from criticizing his “politicizing” of the Justice Department, and even attempts by Trump’s acolytes in the Republican-majority 118th Congress from threatening impeachment of the AG. For those concerned about our democracy and our government records the special counsel has been a long-time coming.
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Pelosi Steps Down – The House’s first female speaker, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) steps down after two decades as the lower chamber’s Democratic leader to make way for a younger generation but will not retire altogether. Pelosi was first elected to the House of Representatives serving the San Francisco district in a 1987 special election.
Reps. Steny Hoyer (MD) and Jim Clyburn (SC) also are retiring from the second and third House Democratic leadership positions, respectively, though Clyburn, who was key in Joe Biden winning the party’s 2020 nomination for president, will remain in an assistant position to the new leaders, according to The Hill.
New Democratic Leaders: Lead candidates are Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, to take Pelosi’s position under a Republican House majority as minority leader, Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, in Hoyer’s number-two position and Pete Aguilar of California, in Clyburn’s spot.
Upshot: More than a fierce opponent to the Republicans, Pelosi has been demonized particularly by the hard- and MAGA-right. She has proven to be as effective a leader of House Democrats as Mitch McConnell is for Senate Republicans.
The Hill’s shortlist of Pelosi accomplishments include her securing of Congressional response to the Great Recession in 2008, guiding passage of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act and securing trillions of dollars in COVID-19 pandemic relief funds. Pelosi led impeachment of then-President Trump and launched the House Select Committee’s special investigation into the January 6 Capitol insurrection.
Pelosi was the first woman to become House Speaker in 2007, and became Speaker again in 2019.
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa