After engaging in a quest to convict Donald Trump for well over two years, now-former special counsel Jack Smith is departing his role not with a bang, but with little more than a whimper.
As Fox News reports, Smith announced his resignation from the Justice Department on Friday, doing so in very discreet fashion in a footnote at the end of a court filing.
Though Smith's resignation was not unexpected, given that he had already signaled his intention to leave his role in the wake of Trump's Nov. 5 election, it was the manner in which he let the world know that the process was complete that came as something of a surprise.
In the aforementioned court filing, Smith said simply, “The Special Counsel completed his work and submitted his final confidential report on January 7, 2025, and separated from the Department on January 10.”
Smith entered widespread public consciousness in November 2022, when Attorney General Merrick Garland tapped him to lead a probe of claimed interference by Trump in the 2020 election aftermath as well as to lead the investigation into Trump's handling of classified documents after departing the White House in 2021.
Though in the wake of Trump's recent electoral win, Smith sought to wind down his federal prosecutions of the president-elect, but that is not to say that he has given up entirely on his apparent desire to undermine his longstanding legal target on the way out the door.
The filing in which Smith dropped his resignation note was related to a comprehensive report he drafted on the investigations into Trump, which is itself the subject of a legal battle regarding its potential release, something the president-elect -- along with his former co-defendants in the documents case -- has opposed.
Not surprisingly, the news of Smith's formal exit from the Justice Department was welcomed by Trump, who took to his Truth Social platform to weigh in on the development.
For starters, Trump reposted a screenshot of an X post from Politico's Kyle Cheney, which read, “And so it ended for Jack Smith, not with the sunset ride of a conquering hero but a 24-word footnote indicating he had 'separated from the Justice Department,' his final report in limbo....”
Trump later declared, “Deranged Jack Smith was fired today by the DOJ. He is a disgrace to himself, his family, and his Country. After spending over $100,000,000 on the Witch Hunt against TRUMP, he left town empty handed!”
The president-elect was not finished, later posting, “The Stench of Deranged Jack Smith and his thugs is GONE. They were sent packing after spending over $100,000,000, destroying the lives of many people and families, who will never be the same again.”
“Deranged Jack accomplished nothing, except to show what complete losers my political opponents are!!!” Trump concluded.
With Trump poised to take office on roughly a week, speculation is rife that the incoming administration will begin probing Smith's actions to determine if he and others inside the DOJ ran afoul of the law in their pursuit of the now-president-elect.
Trump ally Mike Davis of the Article III Project famously suggested that Smith may want to “lawyer up” ahead of the presidential transition and given Joe Biden's ongoing deliberations about a potential preemptive pardon for the former special counsel and others similarly situated, all eyes will surely be on D.C. in the days and weeks to come.
