'I would fire him within two seconds,' Trump says about Special Counsel Jack Smith
WASHINGTON - Former President Donald Trump made it official Thursday: If he is re-elected, he would dismiss Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is prosecuting cases against him.
"I would fire him within two seconds,” Trump told radio show host Hugh Hewitt.
Smith is the top prosecutor in two cases against Trump, one involving efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the other dealing with taking classified documents when he left office.
In the Thursday interview, Hewitt asked Trump if he would pardon himself or fire Smith; Trump responded that he would do the latter.
Trump's comments drew swift condemnation from some legal experts for violating the norm that presidents allow the Justice Department to operate independently.
“Mr. Trump has made it clear time and again he views himself as above the law," Bradley P. Moss, an attorney who specializes in national security matters told USA TODAY. "If he wins in November, armed with Supreme Court precedent on immunity, he will govern like he is above the law as well.”
Trump has previously attacked Smith and suggested he would fire him.
“I wouldn’t keep him,” Trump said to Breitbart News in July 2023. “Jack Smith? Why would I keep him? He is deranged.”
Trump also said in a post on Truth Social that Smith should be in jail. “They ought to throw Deranged Jack Smith and his Thug Prosecutors in jail," Trump wrote.
During his first administration, Trump tried to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who was investigating Russia's efforts to assist Trump's 2016 campaign, and to impede Mueller's investigation, according to Mueller's report.
Trump has said he would use the Justice Department to prosecute opponents for unspecified crimes.
Trump's comments on Smith come on the heels of new evidence against him being released in the election interference case last week and his own former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly telling the New York Times this week that Trump "falls into the general definition of fascist."
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Hewitt noted that a dismissal of Smith could invite an impeachment inquiry, just as happened to President Richard Nixon after he fired Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox in October of 1973.
Trump responded that he does not think Congress would impeach him for firing Smith.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump pledges to fire Special Counsel Jack Smith