Attorney General Merrick B. Garland appointed a special veteran prosecutor to bring down former president Donald Trump. Jack Smith, the name was enough for the necessary uproar for Trump’s indictment.
Jack Smith, 54, has a stellar record of handling high-profile political cases, including serving as the prosecutor for investigating war crimes in Kosovo in The Hague. According to Mr. Garland, Smith was “the right choice to complete these matters in an evenhanded and urgent manner.”
Jack Smith was announced as the prime prosecutor for the special counsel formed to investigate charges and formulate a case for Trump’s indictment, charged on 37 counts.
Trump will be indicted on the grounds of two investigations:
- Retention and alleged concealment of classified documents after he left the White House in January 2021.
- Alleged provocation in which his mob supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress’s formal certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election 2020.
Here is a complete account of the Special Counsel team and their role in Trump’s investigation.
Who Is Jack Smith?
John Luman Smith, widely known as Jack Smith, was born on June 5, 1969, and was raised in Clay, New York, in a suburb of Syracuse.
Education:
1991: Graduated summa cum laude from State University of New York (SUNY) ay Oneonta.
1994: Received a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Harvard Law School.
Career:
1994- 1999: Served as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
Later joined the Brooklyn office of the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York– designated for supervisory positions and served as the chief of criminal litigation.
2008-2010: Worked as the director of investigations for the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
2010: Appointed head of the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section, investigating and prosecuting politicians and government officials for corruption charges.
2015-2017: Designated as the first assistant U.S. attorney. Later acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee.
2017–2018: Served as vice president and head of litigation for the Hospital Corporation of America.
2018: Returned as “specialist prosecutor” of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide by or against citizens of Kosovo.
November 2022: Appointed as the special counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
What Did the Special Counsel Do to Trump?
June 2023: Smith filed Trump’s indictment. Trump’s personal aide Waltine Nauta was also roped in for multiple criminal charges.
Trump was charged for:
- Violating the Espionage Act
- Conspiring to obstruct the criminal investigation.
July 2023: Trump took to his social media to announce that he had officially received a Target Letter from the DOJ. The letter consisted of additional criminal charges from a federal grand jury.
August 2023: The DOJ, under Smith, filed an expected indictment, charging Trump with three counts of conspiracy:
- conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding
- conspiracy to defraud the United States
- conspiracy to impede the free exercise of the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted).
The final decision after giving the Target Letter was decided earlier this week. Smith’s team of justice department lawyers and members of Trump’s defense team were seen in a meeting for the verdict.
Mark Meadows, who was the former chief of staff for the Trump administration, testified before a Florida grand jury on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Trump maintained his statement that he was unaware of the indictment. He wrote in Truth Social Post–
“No one has told me I’m being indicted, and I shouldn’t be because I’ve done NOTHING wrong.”
But Smith whipped out solid evidence that proved that there was an audio tape containing classified documents detailing a potential attack on Iran. The voice in the tape was proven to be Trump’s.
What is your take on this indictment? Do you think Jack Smith has significant evidence for the case? Let us know in the comments section below.
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