Jack Smith, the special counsel who oversaw two federal criminal investigations and prosecutions of Donald Trump, plans to beat the president-elect’s pledge to fire him “within two seconds” of taking office by resigning first.
The New York Times reported that Smith has notified prosecutors and FBI agents on his team that they can begin planning their departures and that he intends to step down before Trump’s inauguration.
The paper said Smith is still assessing how to wind down his two cases against Trump, which have been rendered moot by the Republican’s victory in this month’s presidential election.
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The Justice Department has a long-standing policy that holds a sitting president can’t be prosecuted.
The Supreme Court also ruled this summer that broad swaths of presidential conduct can’t be prosecuted even after a president leaves the Oval Office.
However, Smith will likely have one last chance to make his case, just not in a court of law.
DOJ regulations require that he make a final report on his investigation, where he could lay the case against Trump on charges related to his role in the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack and his alleged mishandling of classified government records.
The Times said it‘s unclear if Smith will be able to complete that work quickly enough for it to be made public before President Joe Biden’s term ends in January.
Smith, the paper said, intends to leave no “significant part of his work for others to complete.”
Previously chief prosecutor for the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, Smith was appointed as special counsel in November 2022 by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Republican lawmakers have already indicated that he may be an early target of a retribution campaign against Trump’s perceived foes, something the president-elect frequently suggested would happen if he won office.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) requested on Friday that Smith’s office preserve all records of its Trump probes, a sign that a congressional inquiry may be on the way.
MAGA billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk lauded the move, tweeting “Jack Smith’s abuse of the justice system cannot go unpunished.”
Trump lashed out in early October after a 165 page filing by Smith, detailing his alleged role in the January 6 riots, was unsealed.
“Deranged Jack Smith, the hand picked Prosecutor of the Harris-Biden DOJ, and Washington, D.C. based Radical Left Democrats, are HELL BENT on continuing to Weaponize the Justice Department in an attempt to cling to power,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social.
