Special Counsel Jack Smith is quietly leaving his office, the court document says
Fox News reports that special counsel Jack Smith resigned from his position at the Justice Department on Friday.
The resignation, which has been expected since President-elect Trump’s election in November, was quietly announced in a filing on Saturday.
“The special counsel completed his work, submitted his final confidential report on January 7, 2025, and left the Department on January 10,” the memo reads.
Smith was appointed by the Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022 to investigate the 2020 election interference case against Trump on January 6, as well as Mar-a-Lago classified documents case. In 2017, Smith served as US Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee during the first Trump administration.
In November, special counsel Jack Smith requested that charges be dismissed against Trump for allegedly meddling in the certification of the 2020 election. (Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The news comes as the country awaits the release of Smith’s report on the election meddling case. A recent court filing indicated that Garland plans to release the investigative report soon, possibly before Trump takes office on Jan. 20.
A federal appeals court judge did not rule Friday block release Smith’s report.
“As I have made clear with every Special Counsel who has served since I took office, I remain committed to making the Special Counsel’s report public to the extent possible, consistent with legal requirements and Department policy,” Garland wrote in his latest letter. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, D-Md.
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Jack Smith speaks during a press conference in Washington DC in 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
After Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Smith signaled he would drop his allegations against the president-elect. In late November, Smith asked a judge to drop the charges against him President-elect Donald Trump in the DC case against him.
Smith filed a motion before asking to dismiss the case clear all deadlines In the 2020 election meddling suit against Trump in Washington, D.C. — a decision widely expected after Trump’s victory. After the cases were dismissed, Trump responded to the move by arguing that the investigations “should never have happened.”
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The special counsel’s resignation comes as his report is scheduled to be released, possibly before President-elect Trump takes office on January 20. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“These cases, like all the others I have had to go through, are empty and illegal and should never have been brought,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “It was a political robbery and the lowest point in our Country’s History that such a thing could have happened, yet I persevered against all odds and WON. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman and Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.
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