In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday, former President Donald Trump said he would fire special counsel Jack Smith “within two seconds” of taking office if he is re-elected in November.

Trump made the comments in response to the question of whether he would first pardon himself or remove Smith from office to clear the legal cloud hanging over him as president.

Smith, Appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022He has been repeatedly targeted by the Republican nominee accusing him of illegally trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost.

“It’s easy. I’d fire him in two seconds, he’d be one of the first things addressed,” the 45th president said during the interview, before calling Smith “a fraud.”

Ministry of Justice was taken over

If Trump is re-elected on November 5, he could order the Justice Department to fire Smith after he takes office in January. But it wouldn’t be as simple as eliminating Smith himself. The special advisor is not a person appointed by the president and cannot be dismissed by the president alone.

When he was investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller during his presidency, Trump called on then-White House counsel Don McGahn to pressure the Justice Department to terminate Mueller. McGahn refused.

Smith filed two federal lawsuits against Trump. The first lawsuit accused him of illegally storing confidential documents at Mar-a-Lago Property in Florida. It was rejected in July, a decision that Smith appealed.

The other, more serious case accuses him of Conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election. That decision was delayed by the conservative-dominated Supreme Court in a 6-3 opinion that granted broad immunity to official actions taken during the presidency.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department filed a 165-page document with Smith seeking to circumvent the immunity order by arguing that because Trump was no longer president at the time of the Jan. 6 riots, it was a “private criminal enterprise.”

After Trump said he would fire Smith, Hewitt raised the possibility that Congress could impeach Trump for the move. Trump said he didn’t believe it would happen.

“I don’t think they would blame me if I fired Jack Smith,” Trump said. “Jack Smith is a scoundrel.”

The former president’s comments came a day after a statement by Gen. John Kelly, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2017 to 2019. He described his former boss as a ‘fascist’ and denies comments in which he claimed Trump’s campaign wanted “Hitler’s generals.”