I'm here today to announce the appointment of a special council in connection with two

ongoing criminal investigations that have received significant public attention.

The first, as described in court filings in the District of Columbia, is 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 held on or

about January 6, 2021.

The second is the ongoing investigation involving classified documents and other presidential

records, as well as the possible obstruction of that investigation.

That was Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday, announcing what amounts to a legal

bombshell in the two most high-profile investigations being carried out by his department.

He's appointing a special council to oversee the ongoing probes into whether Donald Trump

illegally sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, and whether

he violated federal law by taking classified documents from the White House and then refused

to turn them over in response to a court-approved subpoena.

Garland named Jack Smith, a career department prosecutor who once headed justices public

integrity section to the job of determining whether Trump should be prosecuted.

And yet Garland still has ultimate power to approve or reject whatever Smith decides.

What does this move mean for Trump's future and the integrity of the Justice Department?

We'll talk to Michael Zeldin, a former career prosecutor and independent council himself,

and then we'll check in with Sarah Lee Wittsen, executive director of the Human Rights

Group Dawn about the State Department's controversial decision to recommend shielding

Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman from a lawsuit on this episode of Skolduggery.

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