Jack Smith, the justice department’s special counsel assigned to oversee two criminal investigations into Donald Trump, resigned Friday from the department.
Smith’s resignation came hours after the department asked a federal appeals court to move swiftly in reversing a judge’s order blocking the release of his investigative report focused on Trump’s alleged efforts to undo the 2020 presidential election before he re-takes office on 20 January.
The release of a second Smith-authored report into Trump’s handling of classified documents after he left the White House in 2021 is currently delayed pending the outcome of criminal proceedings against two of Trump’s co-defendants, personal aide Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira.
Smith’s resignation was revealed in a footnote to a court filing to the US district judge Aileen Cannon Saturday afternoon, as first reported by Politico, in which the now-former special counsel urged Cannon not to extend a court order she issued last week blocking release of his final report.
Justice department officials say Cannon’s order overstepped her authority and that she has no power to block the attorney general, Merrick Garland, from releasing Smith’s findings. The Trump-nominated justice had previously dismissed the documents case after ruling Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional.
On Friday, the justice department asked an appeals court to lift Cannon’s injunction altogether, calling it “plainly erroneous” and arguing that only Garland “has authority to decide whether to release an investigative report prepared by his subordinates”.
Smith had been expected to leave the justice department before Trump takes office, but his resignation will likely be seen as recognition of the reality that the two reports are not likely to be released before Trump is sworn in as the 47th US president on 20 January 2025. It is also unlikely the reports will be released under Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Pam Bondi.
In his letter to the court, Smith said: “[T]he Special Counsel completed his work and submitted his final confidential report on January 7, 2025, and separated from the Department on January 10.”
