Thread by @MuellerSheWrote

THREAD: THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MUELLER & JACK SMITH. So there's been a lot of reaction to the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith - both positive & negative - along with comparisons to all the bad things about the Mueller investigation. Let me outline the differences. 1/

First, Jack Smith won't be working under the constant threat of being fired by a hostile AG and a dipshit president. That sword of Damocles constantly forced Mueller to walk a fine line, and that won't be the case in this Special Counsel probe. 2/

Second, there's no Rod Rosenstein - a cowardly wisp of a man - to narrow the scope of this probe. Rod clipped the Mueller probe to a paper-thin investigation, and then promised to "land the plane" based on his curtailing of the breadth of Mueller's work. 3/

Third, there is no longer a Bill Barr-type asshole to sit on the findings and spin them for weeks in favor of trump. Nor is there anyone to inappropriately redact the final report to hide the severity of Russia's involvement in the election. 4/

Fourth, THERE IS NO OLC MEMO SAYING YOU CANT INDICT A FORMER PRESIDENT. Mueller felt he was bound by what most people see as an unconstitutional OLC memo that prohibited Mueller from indicting donald - and therefore - meant he couldn't even accuse him of a crime. 5/

Fifth, the only OLC memo that was even discussed was one that said advisors to the president have blanket immunity, but DoJ has already declared in court filings that memo does not apply. There's also no executive privilege. That belongs to Biden and he's refused to invoke it 6/

Sixth, privilege arguments have largely been resolved with the court battle over the testimony of Pat Cipollone, Pat Philbin, Greg Jacob, and Marc Short. Probably also Eric Herschmann. 7/

Seventh, Jack Smith does not need to take weeks to assemble a team as most of the prosecutors and agents working on the criminal probes now will move over to the Special Counsel's office. And both Garland and Smith have assured speed and urgency. 8/

Eighth, DoJ already has testimony from dozens of witnesses, including the 40 or so subpoenas they issued before the 60 day election blackout in the fraudulent electors investigation, and folks like Kash Patel in the documents case. 9/

Ninth, Smith has the advantage of a recent Special Counsel probe into donald for reference. He closer to his practical experience than Mueller was, and he has a low profile (he wasn't the FBI director for 12 years for example.) 10/

So, there are many things that make this investigation different from the Mueller probe. Though if this Special Counsel uses prosecutorial discretion to decline to prosecute, I think we can all agree that will be the death knell of the rule of law in America. END/

NEW: this piece by @AWeissmann_ hits all the notes. nytimes.com/2022/11/22/opi…