Special Counsel Jack Smith, Leader of Trump Prosecution, Resigns from DOJ

Special Counsel Jack Smith, Leader of Trump Prosecution, Resigns from DOJ

Special counsel Jack Smith has concluded his work on two criminal investigations involving President-elect Donald Trump and stepped down from the Justice Department on Friday.

After nonstop investigation and dismissing the charges after Trump won back in November, Jack Smith’s seemingly partisan investigation of Donald Trump has come to an end.

More from POLITICO:

Word of Smith’s departure came in a footnote to a court filing Justice Department officials submitted to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon Saturday afternoon, urging her not to extend a court order she issued last week temporarily blocking the release of the final report Smith submitted to department leaders on Tuesday.

Justice Department officials say Cannon’s order overstepped her authority and that she has no power to block Attorney General Merrick Garland from releasing Smith’s findings. Her ban on disclosure of Smith’s report currently runs through Monday.

Garland has said he plans to release publicly only the portion of Smith’s report that covers his investigation into Trump’s effort to subvert the 2020 election. The attorney general has said in court filings that he agreed with a recommendation from Smith to keep the other volume — which addresses the probe into Trump’s possession of a raft of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after he left office in 2021 — under wraps due to prosecutors’ ongoing efforts to revive a criminal case against two Trump allies and former co-defendants. Instead, Garland intends only to show that report to a handful of members of Congress.

CNN has more:

Smith’s office has been in the wind-down process for weeks, and his resignation before Trump takes office isn’t unexpected. In addition to finalizing its report and sending it to the attorney general, Smith’s team had also handed off an ongoing appeal over the special counsel’s office powers to other attorneys at the Department of Justice and dismissed the two federal criminal cases against Trump because of his return to the presidency.

The attorney general has also told congressional committee leaders he intends to give to them confidential access to Smith’s volume on the classified documents case — making this weekend and next week a crucial window for AG Merrick Garland’s intentions of transparency.

In the meantime, the Justice Department is battling in court with Trump and his former co-defendants over whether Smith’s report can be made public, with the clock ticking down to the January 20 inauguration. Trump is planning to appoint some members of his defense team, who have argued in court against publication, to high-level positions at the Justice Department.

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