U.S. Special Counsel and Trump prosecutor Jack Smith reportedly resigned from the Department of Justice on Friday.
Smith’s resignation occurs as President-elect Donald Trump readies to re-enter the White House at the end of January, prompting Smith to abandon both criminal cases after encountering substantial obstacles from judges nominated by Trump.
The Supreme Court verdict in favor of Trump against Smith was particularly significant, conferring substantial protection from prosecution for official activities to former presidents.
Although the cases were dismissed, Smith justified the accusations based on their merits, stating that Trump’s re-election rendered them “untenable” owing to DOJ policy prohibiting the prosecution of sitting presidents.
In November 2022, Attorney General Merrick Garland assigned Smith to oversee the Department of Justice’s investigations into Trump’s purported efforts to subvert the 2020 election and his suspected mishandling of secret information.
Trump refuted any misconduct, characterizing the prosecutions as politically motivated revenge from the Biden administration, and generated millions in campaign contributions as a result of the cases against him.
A significant portion of Trump’s followers perceived the prosecutions by Smith and others as overt efforts by the political establishment to suppress Trump through legal means, a compelling narrative that Trump leveraged until election day.
Smith operated under a constrained timeline, as numerous experts agreed that a Trump electoral victory prior to the resolution of Smith’s cases would result in the cessation of the prosecutions.
Smith made his initial public appearance since his appointment in November 2022 in August 2023.
This afforded Smith slightly more than a year to surmount the delays imposed by Trump’s legal team, as both cases remained ensnared in legal impasse, with Trump-appointed Justice Aileen Cannon outright dismissing the classified documents case and even temporarily obstructing the public release of Smith’s January 6 report for several weeks.
Smith’s resignation signifies the conclusion of Trump’s federal legal challenges, as no past president had been prosecuted before Smith’s appointment.
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