Special counsel who led Trump probes steps down from Justice Dept.
3 Min Read
This comes amid an ongoing legal dispute between Justice Department officials and Trump's defense attorneys regarding the release of one volume of Smith’s two-part report.
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Special counsel Jack Smith speaks to the media about an indictment of former President Donald Trump, on Aug. 1, 2023, at an office of the Department of Justice in Washington (AP)
Special Counsel Jack Smith, appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022 to oversee two investigations into President-elect Donald Trump, has officially resigned, CBS News reported, citing a Justice Department court filing submitted on Saturday.
Court documents reveal that Smith "separated from the Department on January 10." The information emerged in a federal court filing amid an ongoing legal dispute between Justice Department officials and defense attorneys for the president-elect regarding the release of one volume of Smith’s two-part report.
Attorneys for Trump’s former co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira, have requested an extension of an order by Judge Aileen Cannon that prevents the Justice Department from releasing part of Smith’s report.
Under Justice Department regulations, special counsels must submit a report to the attorney general outlining their investigative findings and prosecutorial decisions. Garland has committed to publicly releasing all reports completed during his tenure and has done so previously, including after the investigation into President Biden’s handling of classified documents.
Earlier this week, court filings disclosed that Smith submitted a two-volume report to Garland on January 7, just days after attorneys for Trump and his co-defendants reviewed a draft of the report. Trump’s legal team subsequently wrote to Garland, urging him to remove Smith from his role and block the report’s release, according to court documents.
Following this review, attorneys for Trump’s co-defendants sought intervention from Judge Cannon—who had previously dismissed one of Smith’s cases against Trump in July—and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to prevent Garland from publishing the report.
Smith was initially appointed to lead two Justice Department investigations into Trump: his actions following the 2020 presidential election and his handling of classified documents after leaving office. Both investigations resulted in criminal charges against Trump, who pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.
The investigations were ultimately closed last year after Trump won the presidential election, as Justice Department regulations prohibit the prosecution of a sitting president.
Despite the closures, Smith kept an appeal open regarding Cannon’s dismissal of the classified documents case involving Nauta and de Oliveira. Defense attorneys in this matter have sought to block the release of the report, arguing it could prejudice their case.
The Justice Department has responded by indicating that Garland will not release the portion of the report concerning the classified documents investigation until the case is fully resolved. Instead, that volume will be made available only to select members of Congress.
However, Trump’s legal team and defense attorneys continue to press federal courts to block the release of the section of the report addressing Smith’s investigation into the 2020 election.
For now, the report remains unpublished, as Cannon has ordered the Justice Department to withhold it until at least Sunday. Meanwhile, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the co-defendants' attempt to further bar prosecutors from releasing the document.
Defense attorneys have since urged Cannon to extend her order preventing the report’s release, a move the Justice Department is actively opposing.
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