Former President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would quickly fire special counsel Jack Smith and use his presidential powers to end his probe if he is elected next month.
Smith was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate the former president on a range of charges in two separate cases, including one charging Trump with election-related crimes and another accusing him of illegally retaining classified documents after he left office.
When asked by radio host Hugh Hewitt whether he would pardon himself or fire Smith, Trump said: “It’s so easy. It’s so easy. I would fire him within two seconds.”
Trump later said he doesn’t believe he would be impeached if he fired Jack Smith and that he has “immunity at the Supreme Court,” referring to the high court’s decision in July.
Trump’s comment on Thursday appears to be the first time he’s explicitly stated that he would fire Smith if he is reelected.
In a 2023 interview with Breitbart News, the former president said, “I wouldn’t keep him,” referring to Smith. Trump also wrote on Truth Social in multiple instances that he believes Smith should be jailed.
Neither Smith nor the Department of Justice (DOJ) have publicly responded to Trump’s Thursday comment.
The Epoch Times contacted Smith’s office and the DOJ for comment but received no replies by publication time.
While the classified documents case was dismissed by a federal judge in July, Smith’s office has appealed the decision. Trump, meanwhile, still faces federal charges in Washington in Smith’s case that accuses Trump of illegally trying to overturn the 2020 election, although that case was delayed for months on appeal.
In July, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that presidents have a high degree of immunity from prosecution for their official acts as president. Smith was forced to revise his case, filing a superseding indictment in August that cut out some of his previous allegations but did not drop any of the four charges brought against the former president.
The former president faces obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy against rights, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, accusing both Smith and the DOJ of acting in a partisan manner to interfere with the November election.
Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democrat opponent in the presidential race, made reference to the Supreme Court ruling in a mid-October campaign event in Greenville, North Carolina, where she claimed that the 2024 election’s stakes are higher than the previous two when Trump was the Republican nominee.
“Much is on the line in this election. And this is not 2016 or 2020. The stakes are even higher, because a few months ago, the United States Supreme Court basically told the former president that he would effectively be immune from whatever he does in office,” she said.
After Smith filed more evidence in the case, Harris released an ad targeting Trump that directly invoked the election case as well as the Jan. 6, 2021, breach at the U.S. Capital.
Earlier this month, Trump’s lawyers made note of the Harris advertisement and asked a federal judge to hold off the release of more documents until Nov. 14, or nine days after the Nov. 5 election.
“The incumbent Vice President—whose administration the Special Counsel serves—also began featuring the Special Counsel’s brief in political advertisements for the 2024 Presidential Election,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in a recent court filing.
Trump’s attorneys added that with the Smith release of documents, “the public has been poisoned by a one-sided prosecutorial narrative that is being used for political purposes by the incumbent administration.”
In October, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan allowed the release of a 165-page filing from Smith’s team, which detailed alleged activities on Jan. 6, 2021, and other information.
Aside from the federal case, Trump faces a sentencing date on Nov. 26 after being convicted by a Manhattan jury of falsifying business records in connection to payments his campaign made during the 2016 election.
A separate election case that was also brought in Fulton County, Georgia, has been put on hold until next year, as Trump and multiple co-defendants appealed a judge’s decision earlier this year to allow Fulton County District Attorney General Fani Willis to remain on the case.
Reuters contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times