(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Why Are Some of You So Obsessed with Who Gets a Special Counsel? [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-08-14 I’m asking seriously. Sometimes I feel like I’m taking crazy pills whenever I read things like “Joe Biden got a special counsel, why didn’t Mike Pence!?!” or “Hunter Biden got a special counsel, why didn’t Jared Kushner!?!” My natural response is- so what? Why does anyone care? Now I’ll admit my Southern California dude upbringing made it very clear that giving a shit about stuff was not cool. I try to be cool. I am really blase about lots of stuff. But even for me, I really don’t get it. Here’s things I think I know, and if I’m wrong, please tell me. If the FEDS want to go after you, you’re in big trouble. I don’t want to sound MAGA, but we’re ants to the federal government. They have all the resources that the largest economy in the world provides, and if they point them in your direction, you don’t have any chance of survival unless your life is in order. This is why Hunter Biden is in trouble right now. He started out as a tax cheat, but they went so far into his business that now he’s liable for the guns too. (and maybe the drugs, I don’t remember). Special counsel is usually appointed to avoid conflicts of interest. There’s not much different between what they can do vs. what a normal DoJ investigator can do. The only notable difference is that they maintain a degree of independence from DoJ leadership. They can send supboena’s, bring indictments, etc. But there’s nothing special about that besides not needing approval to do some things. The reason why they’re often appointed is because the president would have reason to fire the Attorneys General if the president didn’t like the results of an investigation. This might cause the AG to attempt to influence the investigation in some way to benefit themselves. Obviously that’s bad. The people who aren’t getting them aren’t getting them because they don’t present important conflicts of interest. Jared Kushner is Donald Trump’s son in law. It could be argued that Joe Biden would benefit from Donald Trump’s name being tarnished by association with a subject of a federal investigation. But that’s a stretch, right? Donald Trump himself has already been indicted by the federal government. His son-in-law getting in trouble doesn’t move the needle. Mike Pence is a candidate for office, so possibly he should get a special counsel. But his potential crime is forgetting to return something he legally possessed at one point. If he alone had been the only person to do this, he probably wouldn’t be charged at all. By asking for Mike Pence’s long shot presidential campaign to be accorded the same degree of importance as the possibility of sitting president Joe Biden being investigated for a potential crime by his own Doj is nuts. … So to me, when I hear “Jared should get one”, I think about the fact that the presidential race is not going to change no matter what happens. So there’s no obvious conflict of interest. But we don’t know if he’s being investigated. There’s no particular reason we would. But if he is being investigated, it’s with the same effort, resources and power as a special counsel. … Now here’s what I am guessing is going on in people’s minds: People think the special counsel has special powers. Obviously, if the special counsel has enhanced ability to investigate, then having one appointed would be even worse for the person being investigated. I haven’t seen any evidence this is true. If I’m wrong, I’d really like to know. Because if this is true then it would matter to me whether a special counsel is appointed. If it’s not true, then it’s not quite so important that other people get one appointed for them. People don’t believe someone is being investigated if it’s not in the news. This somewhat makes sense to me. If I can’t show evidence of something, I assume it doesn’t exist. I have heard that Mike Pence is being investigated. But I haven’t heard anything about Jared Kushner being investigated, so I have to admit the possibility that he isn’t. I tend to think that we wouldn’t know. But I can’t prove that. A special counsel would be important to them because it’s confirmation there’s an investigation going on. People think it will be beneficial politically if a special counsel is appointed. Special counsel can speak independently of the DoJ, so they have greater power than the average investigator to make headlines. This strikes me as possible. Even that butthead John Durham makes the news sometimes despite turning up nothing. So maybe? But this is also a point we shouldn’t be making by talking about equal justice because this is outright asking the DoJ to score political points for us. That seems bad. … So which is it? Or none of the above. I’m struggling to understand this, because seem to get heated if I ask this question. I don’t get it and I’d like to understand. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/14/2187088/-Why-Are-Some-of-You-So-Obsessed-with-Who-Gets-a-Special-Counsel Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/