Attorney General Merrick Garland plans to announce Friday that he has appointed a special counsel to oversee the criminal investigations into the retention of national defense information at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago report and parts of the January 6, 2021, insurrection, according to a senior Justice Department official.
Both investigations implicate the conduct of Trump, who on Tuesday declared his candidacy in the 2024 presidential race, making him a potential rival of President Joe Biden.
Justice Department officials have been debating for weeks whether to appoint a special counsel, CNN previously reported.
Trump has sought to paint the investigations as politically motivated, including at his Tuesday presidential announcement, where he said he was the victim of a “weaponization” of the justice system.
The military did not detect previous flights of Chinese spy balloons over the U.S. that took...
