Special Prosecutor Jack Smith officially resigned from the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday. It’s a detail buried in court filings as the DOJ pushes to release its final report on its investigation into President-elect Trump.
“The special counsel completed his work and submitted his final confidential report on January 7, 2025, and separated from the Department on January 10,” Justice Department officials wrote in a footnote in a court filing Saturday.
Smith signaled in court filings late last year that he planned to resign after Trump’s victory led the Justice Department to drop charges in two pending cases, pointing to an internal policy that bars prosecution of sitting presidents.
But his resignation comes amid a bitter legal battle between President Trump and two of his co-defendants in the Mar-a-Lago case, who are trying to block the release of that volume of the Smith report and block another volume examining Trump’s efforts to block the report. I am saying this. transfer of power.
Smith was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 after Trump announced his intention to run for re-election.
This appointment will allow him to oversee the ongoing investigation into President Trump’s mishandling of classified records at his Florida home and election interference.
His appointment came as the DOJ turned a corner on two investigations, both filing unprecedented charges against Trump later that summer. The case has become a cornerstone of Trump’s 2024 campaign, as he claims the criminal case against him is a form of political persecution.
But in both cases serious obstacles were encountered.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida convicted Trump and two of his co-defendants, overturning 50 years of precedent regarding the appointment of illegally appointed special prosecutors by Smith.
The DOJ appealed the ruling against two of Trump’s co-conspirators in the case, and the matter remains before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
And in the Jan. 6 election interference case, prosecutions have been delayed by numerous appeals filed by Trump. The Supreme Court later ruled that former presidents maintain broad immunity from prosecution even after they leave office.
Trump’s re-election led to a surge in ongoing cases, but Smith still planned to release the final report of all special counsel drafts after completing his work.
For Trump’s critics, the two-volume report represented a final opportunity to hold accountable the former president, who had avoided a lengthy legal battle over two criminal charges.
But moves by Trump and his Mar-a-Lago co-defendants Walt Nauta and estate manager Carlos de Oliveira have delayed the release of Smith’s final work.
Garland said he would not release the Mar-a-Lago book of reports given the ongoing litigation against Nauta and de Oliveira, but otherwise planned to release the book on January 6.
The men headed back to Cannon and the 11th Circuit. The appeals court denied an emergency motion to block the report’s release, but Cannon did so, barring its release for three days following the 11th Circuit’s ruling.
This is a confusing legal battle because the incident no longer occurred before Cannon, and the DOJ is asking the 11th Circuit to reverse the three-day delay she imposed on the release of the report, claiming she no longer has authority over the case. I did it.
The DOJ also argues that neither the men nor Cannon had the right to block the report’s release because the Jan. 6 report did not include two of Trump’s co-defendants and Cannon never oversaw the case.
Cannon later on Saturday ordered Nauta and de Oliveira to respond to the DOJ’s efforts to cancel the order by Sunday morning.
But additional briefings will likely delay legal challenges exacerbated by Trump’s inauguration.
Once in office, Trump’s DOJ is expected to drop charges against the two co-defendants and put Smith’s work on hold, preventing it from being viewed by the public.
Updated at 6 PM EST.
