Jack Smith has resigned as the special counsel overseeing federal criminal investigations into President-elect Donald Trump and has “separated” from the US Justice Department, according to a Saturday court filing from the government.
The confirmation of Smith’s departure as of Friday came as the department is fighting an effort by two of Trump’s former co-defendants to stop Smith’s final report on investigations from being released.
Smith was investigating Trump over his role in trying to undo the results of the 2020 presidential contest and over his possession of classified documents that he took to his Florida home after leaving the White House in 2021.
Smith was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022 to lead the two criminal investigations shortly after Trump formally announced his reelection bid. His team brought two indictments against Trump, but neither case made it to trial.
Smith dropped his pursuit of both cases after Trump’s November win, citing the department’s long-standing policy against prosecuting sitting presidents.
The department previously disclosed that Smith had finished his final report and submitted it to Garland on Jan. 7. Garland intends to release the first volume to the public, which concerns his probe into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
The second volume concerns the investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents after he left the White House in 2021. Garland plans to share a copy with several senior members of Congress but won’t make it public given the pending criminal case that remains against Trump’s associates, Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira.
Nauta and De Oliveira, with Trump’s support even though he’s no longer formally involved in the documents case, have been urging judges to block any part of the report from being released.
(With inputs from Bloomberg)
