Smith has held the position of chief prosecutor for a special court in The Hague since 2018, when it was established to hear cases involving war crimes committed in Kosovo.
According to the Department of Justice, Smith started his prosecutorial career as an assistant district attorney in New York in 1994. To accept the new role, he has resigned from his previous position.
As announced by Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday, Jack Smith has extensive experience as a Justice Department prosecutor and will serve as the special counsel in charge of the criminal investigations into the storage of classified documents at the Mar-a-Lago resort owned by former President Donald Trump and some aspects of the Jan. 6, 2021 uprising.
Smith promised in a statement that came out after his announcement that the investigations would be carried out “independently and in the best traditions of the Department of Justice.”
A difficult task lies ahead: In light of Trump’s announcement this week that he will run for president in 2024, there are now concerns about how prosecutors will handle a challenging inquiry that Trump has already characterized as politically motivated. Robert Mueller, the previous special counsel who looked into him, was repeatedly under attack by Trump.
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Special Counsel: Details
The government will occasionally designate a special counsel to lead an investigation in an effort to avoid appearing political. For instance, Mueller, a former FBI director, was chosen by the Trump Justice Department in 2017 to head an inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Mueller’s investigation concluded that Russia had meddled in the election, but it did not uncover any proof that Trump or anybody associated with his campaign had colluded with Russia.
Garland would continue to have some control over the inquiry under the requirements of the special counsel legislation. However, any decision to defy the special counsel must be communicated to the heads of the Senate and House judiciary committees.
What Will Jack Smith Investigate?
Smith will be in charge of a multifaceted investigation into Trump’s alleged attempts to sabotage the 2020 election as well as the transfer of highly sensitive government records to his Florida estate after leaving the White House.
Smith would be in charge of looking into any attempts by “any person or entity” to obstruct the transfer of power following the 2020 election, according to Garland. The department has been looking into alleged attempts to rig the 2020 election and the mob’s call-out last year that resulted in the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
A search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August turned up records and classified documents, which are the subject of the second investigation.
According to Andrew Weissmann, a former federal prosecutor and current law professor at New York University, “Jack Smith is the epitome of a professional and career DOJ prosecutor.” “He is completely uninterested in politics. And a prosecutor who is quick on his feet and skilled, who does not let the ground revert to grass.”
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Jack Smith Noteworthy Work
The most recent position Smith had was as an investigator and war crimes prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. According to the DOJ, Smith conducted “sensitive investigations” into militia members and representatives of foreign governments who were accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
He was employed at the International Criminal Court prosecutor’s office from 2008 to 2010 as the investigation coordinator. After leaving the DOJ in 2015, Smith moved to Tennessee, where he worked as the Middle District of Tennessee’s Acting US Attorney and First Assistant US Attorney.
The largest non-government healthcare provider in the country, according to the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s office, Hospital Corporation of America, he then transitioned to the private sector and worked there as vice president and head of litigation.
The Director’s Award from the Department of Justice, the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service, the Younger Federal Attorney Award from the Federal Bar Association, the Charles Rose Award from the Eastern District Association, and the Henry L. Stimson Medal from the New York County Bar Association are just a few of the honours Smith has won throughout his career.
Jack Smith Career
At the New York County District Attorney’s Office, Smith started his legal career in 1994 as an associate district attorney. According to the Justice Department, he served as an assistant US attorney in the Eastern District of New York in 1999 and prosecuted cases involving gang-related murders of police officers and civil rights abuses.
One of Smith’s largest and most prominent cases as a prosecutor in Brooklyn, New York, involved the prosecution of gang member Ronell Wilson for the murder of two officers from the New York City police department who were killed in Staten Island during an undercover gun operation.
Wilson was found guilty and given the death penalty, making his case the first death penalty case in New York in 50 years, though a judge later ruled that he was not eligible for the death penalty. In February 2015, Jack Smith was named the Middle District of Tennessee’s First Assistant United States Attorney.
Prior to his appointment, Mr. Smith served as Chief of the Public Integrity Section of the United States Department of Justice from 2010 to 2015, where he oversaw the prosecution of challenging public corruption cases all around the nation.
Jack worked as the investigation coordinator for the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, Netherlands, from 2008 to 2010. During his tenure in that position, he oversaw sensitive investigations of foreign militia and government officials for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
After spending nine years in a variety of supervisory roles at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, including Chief of Criminal Litigation and Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division, Mr. Smith left to work for the International Criminal Court.
In his capacity as Chief of Criminal Litigation, Mr. Smith oversaw over 100 criminal prosecutors working on a variety of cases involving public corruption, gang violence, white collar and sophisticated financial fraud, and other criminal offences. Mr. Smith worked as an assistant district attorney in the district attorney’s office of New York County for five years before becoming an assistant US attorney.
Mr. Smith has received numerous awards, including the Director’s Award from the Department of Justice, the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service, the Younger Federal Attorney Award from the Federal Bar Association, the Charles Rose Award from the Eastern District Association, and the Henry L. Stimson Medal from the New York County Bar Association. The State University of New York at Oneonta and Harvard Law School both have cumulative degrees that Mr. Smith also holds.
Trump Objections For The Ongoing Investigation
At a gathering on Friday night at his Florida club Mar-a-Lago, Trump addressed the special counsel appointment. He referred to the probe as a “hoax” and a “witch hunt,” evoking terminology from earlier investigations, such as his two impeachment processes.
Without mentioning any specific action or anticipated response he has to the special counsel, he also ran through a number of current events, naming individuals from the Biden Administration among them.
Special counsel Robert Mueller looked into any connections between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election while Trump was still in office. Trump was not prosecuted, and Mueller did not discover any proof of a conspiracy between his campaign and Russia. However, Mueller did indict more than 30 people and three businesses.
Eight Trump associates, including former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and longstanding informal adviser Roger Stone, were found guilty or entered guilty pleas as a result of his efforts. Later, William Barr, Donald Trump’s former attorney general, named John Durham as a special counsel to look into potential wrongdoing by the FBI and others in the Russia probe.
The only two cases Durham took to trial ended in losses. He did succeed in getting a low-level FBI lawyer to acknowledge guilt and plead guilty to changing an email that was used to obtain surveillance warrants against a former Trump campaign adviser.
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