By james art Attorney General Merrick Garland underscored his displeasure with a Florida-based judge who said his appointment of a special counsel to prosecute Donald Trump was illegal, saying he would not make a “fundamental error of law.”
In an interview with NBC News, Garland was asked about Judge Eileen Cannon’s ruling this month that dismissed the indictment accusing the former president of mishandling classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
The attorney general, a former federal judge and Senate-blocked Supreme Court nominee, didn’t hold back as he spoke from a Justice Department library.
“Look, as you well know, I chose this room for this interview,” Garland said in response to a question about Cannon’s decision. “This is my favorite room in the Department of Justice. This is a law library. I was a federal judge for over 20 years. Do I look like someone who would make this fundamental mistake about the law? I don’t think so.”
Garland added: “Our position is that this is constitutional and valid. That’s why we appealed.”
The Justice Department is appealing the decision to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in hopes of allowing special prosecutor Jack Smith to reopen his case in Florida. It is unclear whether Cannon’s decision will affect the charges against Trump related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Washington, D.C., hearing.
Garland said he followed the same process in appointing Smith as was done previously when John Durham and Robert Mueller were appointed special counsels during the Trump administration.
“So far, every single court, including the Supreme Court, that has considered the legality of the appointment of a special counsel has upheld it,” Garland said.
Iranian threats
Garland also warned in the interview released Tuesday about threats against U.S. government officials from Iran, saying, “I don’t think we’ve seen the end of the Iranian conspiracy.”
He told NBC that “our intelligence community has made it clear that we believe the Iranians are trying to kill or injure former senior government officials.”
“It’s an ongoing problem,” he said. “We have ongoing investigations.”
The attorney general also said it was “extremely troubling” that a would-be assassin was able to get so close to Trump.
“Democracy will not survive if people decide that the way they are going to get any results, or any other motive, is to kill somebody,” he said. “That’s why we need to find out what happened here, why it happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
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