Special Counsel Jack Smith Resigns After Reporting on Donald Trump

Special Counsel Jack Smith resigned from the Justice Department after submitting its investigative report on President-elect Donald Trump, an expected move that comes amid legal disputes over how much of that document can be made public in the coming days.

The department disclosed Smith’s departure in a court filing Saturday, saying he had resigned a day earlier. The resignation, 10 days after Trump’s inauguration after the conclusion of two failed criminal proceedings against Trump that were withdrawn after Trump’s victory in the White House in November.

What is at stake now is the fate of a two volume report that Smith and his team had prepared about their twin investigations into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of his 2020 election and his hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

The Justice Department was expected to release the document in the waning days of the Biden administration, but the Trump-appointed judge who presided over the classified documents case granted a defense request to at least temporarily halt its release. Two of Trump’s co-defendants in that case, Trump’s valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira, had argued that the release of the report would be unfairly prejudicial, an argument that was joined Trump’s legal team.

The department responded by saying it would withhold public disclosure of the volume of classified documents while criminal proceedings against Nauta and De Oliveira remained pending. Although U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon had dismissed the case last July, an appeal by the Smith team of that decision involving the two co-defendants remained pending.

But prosecutors said they intended to proceed with publishing the volume of election interference.

in a emergency motion on friday nightThey asked the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to quickly lift a court order by Cannon that had prevented them from publishing any part of the report. Cannon was separately told Saturday that she had no authority to stop the report’s release, but she responded with an order directing prosecutors to file an additional brief by Sunday.

On Thursday night, the appeals court rejected an emergency defense attempt to block the release of the election interference report. covering Trump’s efforts before the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, to undo the results of the 2020 election. But he left in place Cannon’s court order that said none of the findings could be released until three days after the appeals court ruled on the matter.

The Justice Department told the appeals court in its emergency motion that Cannon’s order was “clearly erroneous.”

“The Attorney General is the Senate-confirmed head of the Department of Justice and has the authority to supervise all officers and employees of the Department,” the Justice Department said. “Therefore, the Attorney General has the authority to decide whether to publish an investigative report prepared by his subordinates.”

Justice Department regulations require special counsels to produce reports upon completion of their work, and it is common for such documents to be made public regardless of the subject.

William Barr, attorney general during Trump’s first term, released a special counsel report examining Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and its possible ties to the Trump campaign.

Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, has also released special counsel reports, including on Biden’s handling of classified information before Biden took office.