Special counsel Jack Smith resigned from his position at the Department of Justice on Friday, as confirmed by a reliable source. The resignation had been anticipated since President-elect Trump's election in November and was discreetly announced in a court filing footnote on Saturday.
The note revealed that Smith completed his work and submitted his final confidential report on January 7, 2025, before separating from the Department on January 10. Smith was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022 to investigate the 2020 election interference case against Trump, related to Jan. 6 and the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case. Previously, in 2017, Smith had served as acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee during the first Trump administration.
The country is eagerly awaiting the release of Smith's report on the election interference case. A recent court filing indicated that Garland intends to release the investigative report soon, possibly before Trump assumes office on January 20. A federal appeals court judge ruled against blocking the report's release on Friday.
In a recent letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan and ranking member Jamie Raskin, Garland reiterated his commitment to making as much of the Special Counsel's report public as possible, in accordance with legal requirements and Department policy.
Following Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential election, Smith moved to wind down his cases against the president-elect. By the end of November, Smith requested a judge to dismiss the charges against President-elect Trump in the D.C. case. Prior to this, Smith had filed a motion to vacate all deadlines in the 2020 election interference case against Trump in Washington, D.C., a move that was widely expected after Trump's win. Trump responded to the developments by asserting that the investigations were baseless and should never have been initiated.
Trump expressed his views on the matter in a post on Truth Social, stating, 'These cases, like all of the other cases I have been forced to go through, are empty and lawless, and should never have been brought. It was a political hijacking, and a low point in the History of our Country that such a thing could have happened, and yet, I persevered, against all odds, and WON. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!'
