Trump called Jack Smith ‘desperate’ after the special counsel’s report was released after midnight
President-elect Trump once again investigated Jack Smith following the Justice Department announcement former special prosecutor’s report early on Tuesday.
Attorney General Merrick Garland released the first volume, which focuses on the election case against Trump, of Smith’s report at midnight Tuesday after it made its way through the federal court system. The report was released at midnight because that’s when the original hold on Volume One expired. Nevertheless, the timing caused a stormy reaction from Trump.
“To show you how desperate Deranged Jack Smith is, he released his false revelations at 1:00am. Did he say the Unselect Committee illegally destroyed and deleted all evidence,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
In another post, Trump dismissed Smith’s report, claiming it was based on information gathered on Jan. 6 by the House Select Committee, which was formed in July 2021 to investigate the breach of the U.S. Capitol earlier that year by Trump supporters who rebelled ahead of President Biden taking office on January 20. The committee’s Jan. 6 investigation was conducted when Democrats held control of the House, and all of its members were appointed by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
A shared image featuring US Attorney General Merrick Garland, President Donald Trump and Special Counsel Jack Smith. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images | Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images | Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Trump also repeated his claim that Smithwho resigned last week, was acting at the behest of President Biden to prosecute the president’s political opponents.
“Jack is a stupid prosecutor who failed to prosecute his case before the election, which I won in a landslide,” Trump wrote.
In a letter to Garland last week, Smith called it “ridiculous” that Trump believes the Biden administration or other political actors influenced or directed his decisions as a prosecutor, saying he was guided by the Principles of Federal Prosecution.
“Trump’s cases represented those in which the crime was committed [was] the most flagrant, the public damage the greatest, and the proof the most certain,’ said Smith, referring to the principles.
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Special counsel Jack Smith recently asked to dismiss the charges he brought against Trump in the case of alleged interference in the 2020 election. (Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
In a lengthy report, Smith said his office fully stood behind the decision to file criminal charges against Trump because he “resorted to a series of criminal attempts to retain power” after losing the 2020 election.
Smith said in his conclusion that the parties were determining whether any material in the “superseding indictment was subject to presidential immunity” when it became clear that Trump had won the election in 2024. The department then decided that the case must be dismissed before he takes office because of the way it interprets the Constitution.
“The position of the Ministry that the Constitution prohibits the continuation of the accusation and criminal prosecution of the President is categorical and does not address the gravity of the crime for which he is charged, the strength of the Government’s evidence or the basis of the criminal prosecution, which the Office fully supports,” the report states.
Garland named ex Official of the Ministry of Justice Jack Smith as special adviser in November 2022.
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Former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida was searched by the FBI in 2022. (Getty Images)
Smith, a former assistant U.S. attorney and head of the DOJ’s public integrity division, led the investigation into whether Trump withheld classified documents after leaving the White House and whether the former president obstructed the federal government’s investigation into the matter.
Smith has also been tasked with overseeing an investigation into whether Trump or other officials and entities obstructed the peaceful transition of power after the 2020 presidential election, including the certification of the Electoral College vote on January 6, 2021.
Smith accused Trump in both cases, but Trump pleaded not guilty.
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The secret records case was dismissed in July 2024 by U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon, who ruled that Smith was illegally appointed as a special prosecutor.
Smith sued Trump in the US District Court for Washington DC in his 2020 election case, but after Trump was elected president, Smith sought to have the case dismissed. Judge Tanya Chutkan granted that request.
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman, Emma Colton and Julia Johnson contributed to this report.
