Trump Justice Department not expected to appoint outsider as special counsel, source says

The Justice Department is not expected to appoint an outsider to serve as special counsel to handle politically sensitive criminal investigations, but will likely deputize a US Attorney to handle such matters if the need arises, according to a source familiar with the strategy.

The Justice Department is not expected to appoint an outsider to serve as special counsel to handle politically sensitive criminal investigations, but will likely deputize a US Attorney to handle such matters if the need arises, according to a source familiar with the strategy. On Friday, President Donald Trump once again called for a special prosecutor to investigate former President Joe Biden and aired unfounded claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election. “A Special Prosecutor must be appointed. This cannot be allowed to happen again in the United States of America! Let the work begin!” he wrote on Truth Social. The president has repeatedly called for a special counsel to investigate his predecessor over a number of issues. “The whole purpose of the special counsel regime is to appoint a politically neutral outsider who can bring independence and credibility to a case,” said Elie Honig, a CNN senior legal analyst and author of a forthcoming book on the history of special counsels and independent prosecutions. “To choose a Trump-appointed US Attorney will, at a minimum, create the appearance that that person is biased in favor of Trump and his political agenda.” The Justice Department is already investigating some of Biden’s actions while in office as part of its “Weaponization Working Group.”