USA

Jack Smith says DOJ ‘can’t do its job’ because of judges’ distrust of prosecutors

Former special counsel Jack Smith warned that the United States faces “an assault on the rule of law” under President Trump, said he was “very concerned” about the integrity of future elections and accused the administration of weaponizing the Justice Department.

Special counsel Smith, who made accusations against Trump after his first term, argued that the department had been fundamentally weakened under the Trump administration.

“No matter what you think politically, they are no longer effective at doing their job,” Trump said in an interview on MS NOW’s “Deadline: White House” program, his first interview since resigning 10 days before Trump’s second inauguration.

While others such as former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James have been seemingly targeted as perceived political enemies of Trump, he acknowledged that it “could” be that he could be indicted by the Justice Department for angering Trump by prosecuting him.

Smith said it made him “angry” to see public officials working on cases that were not favorable to Trump or his allies being “demonized for doing their jobs” by the Trump administration.

A week into Trump’s second term, the Justice Department fired the prosecutors who tried Trump and other colleagues of Smith.

“I think it’s really important that we stand with them and let them know that there are a lot of people who support them and are there for them, and that these are not people who are being targeted and fired for no reason just for doing their job,” he said.

Smith was appointed in 2022 by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee investigations into Trump. He later filed indictments that included accusations that Trump tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which sparked an attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Trump, who has denied the accusations, has since falsely claimed the election was rigged, leading to widespread attempts to overhaul the election due to suspected voter fraud.

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