Trump reacts angrily to special counsel move: ‘I’m not going to partake in it’

‘This is a disgrace and only happening because I am leading in every poll in both parties,’ former president says

Donald Trump has slammed the appointment of a special counsel to oversee the investigations into his handling of classified information and the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.

“I have been going through this for six years — for six years I have been going through this, and I am not going to go through it anymore,” Mr Trump told Fox News Digital on Friday after the counsel was revealed. “And I hope the Republicans have the courage to fight this.”

“I have been proven innocent for six years on everything — from fake impeachments to [former special counsel Robert] Mueller who found no collusion, and now I have to do it more?” he added. “It is not acceptable. It is so unfair. It is so political.”

“I am not going to partake in it,” Mr Trump said. “I’m not going to partake in this.”

He said it’s “not even believable”.

“I have never heard of such a thing. They found nothing. I announce and then they appoint a special prosecutor,” he said. “They found nothing, and now they take some guy who hates Trump. This is a disgrace and only happening because I am leading in every poll in both parties.”

“It is not even believable that they’re allowed to do this. This is the worst politicization of justice in our country,” he said.

The former president then went on to attack President Joe Biden and his family.

“Hunter Biden is a criminal many times over and nothing happens to him,” Mr Trump told Fox News Digital. “Joe Biden is a criminal many times over — and nothing happens to them.”

“It is unfair to the country, to the Republican Party, and I don’t think people should accept it. I am not going to accept it,” he said. “The Republican Party has to stand up and fight.”

Regarding the allegation that he removed classified documents from the White House upon leaving office, Mr Trump claimed to Fox that “every other president took records, and they didn’t do anything about it”.

Regarding January 6, Mr Trump asserted that he “did nothing wrong” and that he told his supporters to protest “peacefully and patriotically”.

A spokesperson for the former president told Fox that “this is a totally expected political stunt by a feckless, politicized, weaponized Biden Department of Justice”.

Before Mr Trump spoke to Fox, The New York Times reported on his rage and that he’s hoping to use it to “muddy the waters”.

Mr Trump has told some of his close associates that the idea of a special counsel to review the litany of allegations against him put him into a rage, particularly because of his experience of the Mueller investigation which looked into the Trump campaign’s connections to Russia in 2016.

Mr Trump thinks the special counsel investigation into him “could hang over him for months,” according to the paper. But they also noted that the appointment of a special counsel could push back any prosecution.

Advisers to the former president say that his legal team has told him that declaring his 2024 campaign, as he did on the evening of 15 November, wouldn’t stop any incoming indictment.

The New York Times reported that Mr Trump knows that he can “use the unprecedented circumstances to muddy the waters”.

Despite the news of Attorney General Merrick Garland appointing Jack Smith, a former head of the Department of Justice public integrity section and who has held positions at the International Criminal Court and the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, Mr Trump chose to use his bully pulpit on his Truth Social platform to complain about the conservative magazine National Review.

“Why does anyone read the National Review?” the former president asked on Friday afternoon. “They are so negative to Conservatives and me, and are seen as being led by lightweights that couldn’t shine the shoes of Bill Buckley. They have absolutely nothing going, it is failing fast, and my only question is, who is paying for the losses—when it loses plenty of money and serves no purpose at all. People are tired of haters—let the National Review die peacefully!”

The outburst was possibly a reaction to a piece by the editors of the magazine simply titled “No” in reaction to Mr Trump’s 2024 announcement, beginning “To paraphrase Voltaire after he attended an orgy, once was an experiment, twice would be perverse”.

“A bruised Donald Trump announced a new presidential bid on Tuesday night, an invitation to double down on the outrages and failures of the last several years that Republicans should reject without hesitation or doubt,” the editors wrote.

“The Trump administration was chaotic even on its best days because of his erratic nature and lack of seriousness,” they added.

“Throughout his career, Jack Smith has built a reputation as an impartial and determined prosecutor, who leads teams with energy and focus to follow the facts, wherever they lead. As special counsel, he will exercise independent prosecutorial judgment to decide whether charges should be brought,” Mr Garland said on Friday.

Mr Smith said in a statement that he intends to conduct the investigations under his purview and “ any prosecutions that may result from them independently and in the best traditions of the Department of Justice”.

“The pace of the investigations will not pause or flag under my watch. I will exercise independent judgment and will move the investigation forward expeditiously and thoroughly to whatever outcome the facts and the law dictates,” he added.

Mr Garland said Mr Smith will be in charge of investigations into two issues: “The investigation into whether any person or entity unlawfully interfered with the transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or the certification of the Electoral College vote,” and an “ongoing investigation involving classified documents and other presidential records as well as the possible obstruction of an investigation referenced and described in court filings in a pending manner in the Southern District of Florida”.