Jack Smith, the special counsel announced by Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday to oversee the criminal investigations into the retention of classified documents at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and parts of the January 6, 2021 riot, is long. -time prosecutor who has overseen several high-profile cases during a career spanning decades.
Smith’s experience ranges from prosecuting a sitting U.S. senator to prosecuting gang members who were ultimately convicted of murdering New York City police officers. In recent years, Smith has prosecuted war crimes in The Hague. His career in several departments of the Department of Justice, as well as in international courts, has allowed him to maintain a relatively low profile in the often imposing legal profession.
His experience and resume will allow him, at least initially, to overcome the kind of political backlash that has quickly met former special counsel Robert Mueller’s team. He also shows that he is adept at handling complex criminal cases related to both public corruption and national security – and that he has practice making difficult decisions with political ramifications.
Smith is widely expected to make policy decisions about whether to indict a former president of the United States. Garland’s statements on Friday and recent steps taken in the Mar-a-Lago and Jan. 6 investigations indicated that, at the very least, Donald Trump is under investigation and may be charged with a crime.
“He knows how to do high-profile cases. He is independent. It won’t be influenced by anyone,” said Greg Andres, a former member of Mueller’s team.
Andres, who has known Smith since the late 1990s, when they started together at a U.S. attorney’s office and eventually became co-directors of the office’s criminal division, said it is Smith’s breadth of experience that will allow him to withstand public scrutiny and make harsh judgments.
“He will evaluate the evidence and figure out what kind of case should be charged or not. He has the experience to make those judgments,” Andres said.
“He understands the courtroom. He understands how to test a hypothesis. He knows how to prove a case,” he added. “Especially in these circumstances it will be critical to understand what kind of evidence is required to prove the case in court.”
In a statement after his announcement, Smith pledged to conduct the investigations “independently and in the best traditions of the Department of Justice.”
“The pace of research will not stop or flag under my gaze. I will exercise independent judgment and move investigations forward expeditiously and thoroughly in whatever outcome the facts and law dictate,” Smith said.
A former colleague pointed out that Smith has fired members of both parties.
“He’s going to be really aggressive,” the person said, adding that “things are going to pick up.” Smith, they said, “works very quickly” and has a unique ability to quickly identify the things that are important to a case and doesn’t waste time “hand-wringing about things that are real side effects.”
In court, Smith comes across as very down-to-earth and relatable, this person said, which is a good trait to have as a prosecutor.
Smith also won’t care about the politics surrounding the case, they said, adding that he has a very thick skin and “is going to do what he’s going to do.”
Smith began his career as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the New York District Attorney’s Office in 1994. He served in the Eastern District of New York in 1999 as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, where he prosecuted cases including civil rights violations and gang-related murders of police officers, according to the Ministry of Justice.
As a prosecutor in Brooklyn, New York, one of Smith’s biggest and most high-profile cases was the prosecution of gang member Ronell Wilson for the murder of two NYPD detectives during an undercover gun operation in Staten Island.
Wilson was convicted and sentenced to death, the first capital case in New York at the time in 50 years, although a judge later found him ineligible for the death penalty.
Moe Fodeman, who worked with Smith at the EDNY, called him “one of the best trial lawyers I’ve ever seen.”
“He is an amazing researcher. leaves no stone unturned. It’s trying to get to the real facts,” said Fondeman.
Fondeman, who is still friends with Smith, said he is a “literally insane” cyclist and triathlete.
Beginning in 2008, Smith worked for the International Criminal Court and oversaw war crimes investigations under the Office of the Prosecutor for two years.
In 2010, he became head of the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Division, where he oversaw public corruption prosecutions before being appointed first assistant U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee in 2015.
Although not widely known in Washington legal circles, Smith is described as a consummate public servant.
About a decade ago, he hired waves of line prosecutors at the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Division, overseeing dozens during his years in charge there.
Brian Kidd, who Smith recruited to the unit, recalled how his boss walked him through every step of a complex extortion case against corrupt cops.
“He was not going to tolerate a politically motivated prosecution,” Kidd said. “And he has an incredible ability to motivate the people who work with him and under him. He’s incredibly supportive of his team.”
Smith has handled some of the most high-profile political corruption cases in recent memory – with mixed results.
He was head of the public integrity unit when then-Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell was indicted in 2014 and was in meetings with the defense team and involved in decision-making before the indictments, according to a person familiar with the case. .
McDonnell was initially convicted of accepting gifts for political favors, but his conviction was later overturned by the Supreme Court.
Smith was also at the helm of the unit when the DOJ failed to convict former senator and vice presidential candidate John Edwards at trial.
In recent years while working in The Hague, he was not living in the United States. He is no longer on the USA Triathlon team, but is still a competitive cyclist.
Smith took over as U.S. attorney when David Rivera left in early 2017 before leaving the Justice Department later that year to become vice president of litigation for Hospital Corporation of America. In 2018, he became the chief prosecutor of the special court in The Hague, where he investigated war crimes in Kosovo.
“Throughout his career, Jack Smith has built a reputation as an impartial and determined prosecutor who leads teams with the energy and focus to follow the facts wherever they lead,” Garland said during the announcement on Friday. “Mr. Smith is the right choice to complete these matters in an even and urgent manner.”
In May 2014, the House Oversight Committee interviewed Smith behind closed doors as part of its Republican-led investigation into the IRS’s alleged targeting of conservative groups. Then-Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa launched the investigation after a 2013 inspector general report found delays in processing applications from some conservative groups and requests for information from them that were later deemed unnecessary.
Republicans sought testimony from Smith, who at the time headed the Public Integrity Division, because of his involvement in setting up a 2010 meeting between Justice Department officials and then-IRS official Lois Lerner, the official at the center of it. IRS scandal. The meeting was called to discuss the “evolving legal landscape” of campaign finance law following the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, according to a May 2014 letter written by Issa and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio who is expected to be the Speaker of the House next year.
“It is clear that the Department’s leadership, including Director of Public Integrity Jack Smith, was intimately involved in its engagement with the IRS after Citizens United and political pressure from prominent Democrats to address perceived problems with the ruling,” wrote the Issa and Jordan in the letter requesting Smith’s testimony.
A follow-up letter the following month from Issa calling for a special counsel to investigate the IRS’s targeting of political groups included excerpts from Smith’s closed-door testimony to the committee.
Smith testified that his office “had dialogue” with the FBI about opening investigations related to politically active nonprofits after meeting with Lerner, but ultimately did not.
“I want to be clear — it would be more to look at the matter, to consider whether it made sense to initiate investigations,” Smith said, according to Issa’s letter. “If we did, you know, how would you do that? Is there a forecast, a basis to start an investigation? Such things. I can’t say, as I sit here right now, specifically, you know, the back and forth of this conversation. I can just tell you this – because I know one of your concerns is that organizations…
