Former President Donald J. Trump said on Thursday that if elected again he would in “two seconds” fire the special counsel Jack Smith, who has brought two federal indictments against him in the past 18 months.
Mr. Trump, who has been charged by Mr. Smith with plotting to overturn his 2020 election loss and illegally holding on to classified material after leaving office, made the comments in an interview with the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt less than two weeks before Election Day.
“I would fire him within two seconds,” Mr. Trump said, in response to a question about whether he would do so. He called Mr. Smith “crooked,” a word he uses against most of his opponents.
Mr. Trump’s remarks were the sharpest he’s made about what could become of the federal cases he is facing should he win another term in office. The comments followed months of verbal attacks on Mr. Smith, whom he has referred to repeatedly as “a thug” and other insults.
“I don’t think they’ll impeach me if I fire Jack Smith,” Mr. Trump, who was impeached twice by the House, told Mr. Hewitt on Thursday, referring to any repercussions he’d face if he were to take that action. “He’s a very dishonest man.”
Mr. Trump and some of his advisers made clear soon after Mr. Smith brought his first indictment against Mr. Trump in June 2023 that a victory by the former president in the election would be the end of the cases. But this is the first time Mr. Trump publicly offered such a specific statement, or said he would take the action himself as opposed to letting the Justice Department handle the cases.
It was also effectively a dare to the House, should Democrats take control of the chamber.
Justice Department officials have said Mr. Smith is prepared to pursue his two cases against Mr. Trump for as long as he has the legal authority to do so — including during the period between Election Day and the inauguration, when Mr. Trump, if he prevails, would be president-elect.
Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mr. Smith, declined to comment on Mr. Trump’s statement.
Some previous incoming administrations have let special counsels appointed by their predecessors continue their work.
Attorney General Merrick Garland, for example, permitted the special counsel John Durham, who was put in place by his predecessor William P. Barr, to keep looking into the origins and validity of the investigation into ties between Russia and Mr. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Some allies of Mr. Trump have repeatedly insisted that Mr. Smith was illegally appointed. Indeed, Judge Aileen M. Cannon, a Trump appointee who is overseeing the former president’s classified documents case in Florida, dismissed the charges against him in their entirety this summer on the grounds that Mr. Smith was put into his job as special counsel without a legal basis. Mr. Smith’s team appealed the ruling, arguing that Judge Cannon had improperly thrown out the charges.
Mr. Trump praised Judge Cannon as “brave” and “brilliant” to Mr. Hewitt, saying she had withstood criticism from Democrats. And he said he is “going to sue them,” appearing to refer to the Justice Department or the F.B.I., for the execution of a search warrant at his club and home, Mar-a-Lago, in 2022.
Judge Cannon’s name was on a list prepared by some advisers to Mr. Trump identifying her as a possible choice for top legal positions in a Trump administration. That list was prepared by advisers who are not working on his transition team, but it included input from his top legal adviser, Boris Epshteyn. A transition spokesman called the notion Judge Cannon was being considered “false reporting.”
The lawyers handling Mr. Trump’s election interference case in Federal District Court in Washington were expected on Thursday to ask the judge in that proceeding for permission to raise a similar challenge against Mr. Smith’s appointment. But it remains unclear if Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is presiding over the case, will permit the challenge given that a federal appeals court in Washington has already ruled that special counsels like Mr. Smith are valid.
Both of Mr. Smith’s cases are now in a kind of legal limbo and will face significant hurdles even if Mr. Trump loses the election.
The special counsel’s office is currently trying to defend its election subversion indictment against a recent landmark ruling by the Supreme Court giving Mr. Trump a broad form of immunity against criminal prosecution for official acts he took as president. The process of determining how much of the indictment can survive and how much will have to be thrown out could take months to complete.
And even if Mr. Smith’s appeal of Judge Cannon’s ruling is successful and the charges are reinstated, she could dismiss them again on separate legal grounds.
Mr. Trump also said he would not rule out pardoning Hunter Biden, the president’s son, who was convicted in June of three felony charges related to the purchase of a handgun and pleaded guilty last month in a federal tax case.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly gone after the younger Mr. Biden, attempting to use his legal troubles to sully his father. Mr. Trump has also tried to paint the justice system as inherently biased against him, framing his criminal cases as politically motivated acts meant to keep him from winning re-election.
When Mr. Hewitt asked about the possibility of a pardon, Mr. Trump used the question to again repeat his baseless insistence that the president was behind the four criminal cases against him.
“I wouldn’t take it off the books,” Mr. Trump said, referring to the younger Mr. Biden’s potential pardon. “See, unlike Joe Biden, despite what they’ve done to me, where they’ve gone after me viciously, despite what — and Hunter is a bad boy, there’s no question about it. He’s been a bad boy.”
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