"Section 515 allows the Attorney General to “specially appoint[]” U.S. Attorneys in certain prosecutions. 28 U.S.C. § 515(a). The statute does not, however, authorize the Attorney General to appoint attorneys other than Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorneys to exercise the Department’s full prosecutorial authority, as the Special Counsel’s Office seeks to do here. Interpreting § 515(a) in that fashion would permit the Attorney General to appoint prosecutors more powerful than a U.S. Attorney without input from Congress, as Jack Smith wields the full prosecutorial power of the United States, yet answers to no one and exercises nationwide jurisdiction.
There is significant tension between the Office’s assurances to that court that Smith is independent, and not prosecuting the Republican nominee for President at the direction of the Biden Administration, and the Office’s assurance here that Smith is not independent and is instead so thoroughly supervised and accountable to President Biden and Attorney General Garland that this Court should not be concerned about such tremendous power being exercised to alter the trajectory of the ongoing presidential election."
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