The US Department of Justice has appointed Jack Smith as an independent special counsel to investigate former President Donald Trump.
Former US Attorney Jack Smith will lead investigations into secret documents confiscated from Trump's private home Mar-a-Lago and parts of the Capitol storm on January 6, 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Friday in Washington.
The appointment of an independent special counsel comes three days after Trump announced his intention to run again in the 2024 presidential election.
This step is likely to be aimed at taking the wind out of the sails of allegations of political instrumentalization by the Ministry of Justice.
A special investigator had already dealt with Trump: Robert Mueller investigated allegations of Russian interference in Trump's favor in the 2016 US presidential election during the Republican's tenure in the White House in 2017.
During his nearly two-year investigation, the former FBI chief did not find sufficient evidence of illegal secret collusion between Trump's campaign team and Russia.
However, he expressly did not exonerate the President from the suspicion of criminal obstruction of justice.