"Life, Liberty & Levin" host Mark Levin tore into the appointment of a special counsel to investigate former President Trump on Sunday, calling the move a product of a politicized Justice Department that flies in the face of "every tradition in our country."
"Since when do you appoint a special counsel to investigate somebody who's announced [he's running] for president in the opposite party and at least now has the highest poll ratings of any other Republican?" Levin said on his show.
Days after Trump announced he would run for president in 2024, Attorney General Merrick Garland 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 is also set to oversee the DOJ’s investigation into the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
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Tearing into Smith's legal record, Levin questioned his constitutional qualifications for the position citing his involvement in the IRS targeting scandal of tea party groups, and Smith’s wife's production of a movie centered around former first lady Michelle Obama.
"That's the guy you pick, whose wife does a documentary on Michelle Obama and whose wife has contributed and mother-in-law has contributed heavily to the Biden campaign?" he asked.
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He also pointed to Smith's oversight of prominent cases against former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell over accepting gifts and against former North Carolina senator and 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards for payments to his mistress. Both cases ultimately ended in acquittals.
"You pick an individual who went after a Republican governor and was reversed by the Supreme Court unanimously because of his tactics, his violation of the Constitution. You pick an individual who was involved in the attack on the tea party and conservative groups edging on the IRS and Lois Lerner to go after them?"
"I mean, over what, documents?" Levin added. "All the lies about nuclear codes being sold and distributed and so forth. The January sixth issue. You're using SWAT teams to go after former advisers to the president… you're taking phones away from attorneys in violation of attorney-client privilege.
"Oh, the crime-fraud exception to investigate what? That Donald Trump was the head of some kind of conspiracy on January sixth when all he was doing was challenging the election, which presidents have done and candidates have done for God knows how long? They have no evidence that ties him to violence," Levin went on, "and yet they're breaking every tradition. Every rule, in this country."
"A special counsel," Levin concluded, "is to be appointed to investigate a sitting president or his family or his associations, not the candidate who might oppose a sitting president. We have never seen this any time in our life."
