Harvard Law professor explains why the new special prosecutor is Trump's worst nightmare

On Monday's edition of CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," retired Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe, an outspoken legal voice in favor of criminally charging former President Donald Trump, weighed in on Attorney General Merrick Garland's decision to appoint war crimes prosecutor Jack Smith as a special counsel in the Trump investigations — and made clear he supported the decision.

"What's your reaction to the appointment of the special counsel by the attorney general?" asked anchor John Berman.

"I think it was the right move, although I had urged doing this many months ago in March," said Tribe. "But more recently, I thought that because Merrick Garland was apparently not really ready to proceed, that he ought to pull things together and bring indictments. The evidence was clear enough, and I thought appointing a special counsel might delay things. He's clearly found a special counsel who won't delay a thing. He's hitting the ground running. He clearly has enormous experience. He's come right off of the war crimes trials that he's handling in Kosovo. He's been in charge of political corruption trials. He's battle-hardened. He's absolutely ready."

"Garland emphasized the need for speed," added Tribe. "He's clearly not come back from The Hague in order to preside over the winding up of an unsuccessful investigation. The marching orders he has are to conclude things as quickly as possible, and I take that to mean a very likely set of indictments arising both out of Mar-a-Lago and the attempt to overturn the election."

"Well, how complicated would it be, practically speaking, to bring indictments against a former president running for president, and to do it in a timely enough fashion that some aspect of the case wouldn't be bumping right up against a presidential election?" asked Berman.

"Well, sooner the better because the delays that are bound to be part of the former president's strategy will make it bump up against the election, but Merrick Garland is not going to let that deter him at all," said Tribe. "He's made that clear. The fact that we have someone who thinks he can protect himself by claiming that he wants to be president. That's all fine, but it's not up to him. Interestingly, he said he doesn't intend to participate in the work of the special counsel. Well, that's nice. No one is asking him. It's not up to him. The special counsel has very broad power."

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