Matthew Whitaker, former President Donald Trump's one-time acting attorney general, told Newsmax that current Attorney General Merrick Garland appointing a special counsel for the Trump case would be "cover" for the Justice Department.
During a Monday appearance on "Spicer & Co.," the former White House official argued that Garland's decision for assigning a special counsel was motivated by a desire to create "political separation" between the Trump probes and Biden administration.
"Based on what we're learning more and more about him, it just appears to be a political hatchet man that ultimately is still going to be responsible to the attorney general, and the attorney general is still going to be in charge of this investigation," Whitaker said of special counsel Jack Smith.
Whitaker further drew attention to Smith's job, which might involve constructing a panel centered around investigating the sensitive Mar-a-Lago files obtained by the FBI and events related to the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol rally.
"He's going to build a team that's mostly going to be people that are already at the Department of Justice, and he's going to use FBI agents that are already working on this case," Whitaker predicted.
"So, while it's not lipstick on a pig, it's really just Merrick Garland using his sophistry to try to make it look like there's an independence of the special counsel," Whitaker added.
The former acting AG continued, "You need someone who's above reproach that had the bona fide qualifications and experience to do this job in a really nonpartisan and objective manner."
Also, "as we're getting a clear picture of [Jack Smith], we're learning ... his wife may be a donor to [President] Joe Biden," said Whitaker. "That she may have produced a film about [former First Lady] Michelle Obama."
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