The law and politics can't be separated when it involves Donald Trump

The appointment of a special counsel to investigate allegations of criminality against Donald Trump will dominate politics in Washington over the next two years. The decision by the Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel was intended to separate the Biden administration from involvement in the long-running series of investigations into the former president and to ensure that a lawyer who is independent of government makes the decision whether to institute charges or not. However, in Washington everything is about politics, and neither Trump nor his loyal followers will view the appointment with anything other than ridicule. Trump has already described the decision by Garland as a witch hunt. The special counsel, Jack Smith, a former war crimes prosecutor, will focus his investigation on the accusation that Trump incited the violence that led to the assault on the Capitol on January 6 last year, and the former president’s removal of classified documents from the White House and the storage of them at his residence at Mar-al-Lago in Florida. Putting these investigations into the hands of a special counsel is bound to delay the decision on whether to charge Trump, although Smith will be able to benefit from the months of work already carried out by the FBI. However, at some point, probably before the 2024 presidential election, the special counsel will be in a position to announce his conclusions; and if he were to decide that charges are justified, how is this going to be orchestrated so as not to have maximum impact on the election? It’s impossible to separate the law from politics when it comes to the most controversial politician in the US. Whatever the special counsel decides it will be within a political environment even though he will insist his decision has been based purely on his legal judgment.