US Authorities Investigating Ex-Trump Prosecutor Jack Smith

The AP, NBC News and other US news outlets confirmed on Saturday that the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency, has opened an investigation into Smith on allegations of illegal political activity.

Without offering any evidence of wrongdoing, Trump and his Republican allies, including Senator Tom Cotton, have accused Smith of violating the Hatch Act, a federal law that bans certain public officials from engaging in political activity.

In a social media post this week, Cotton accused Smith of being a “partisan Democrat who weaponized the law” against Trump in the lead-up to the 2024 US presidential election that he ultimately won.

“I’ve asked the Office of Special Counsel to investigate his actions that likely violated the law to influence the election,” Cotton wrote on X on Wednesday, Al Jazeera reported.

Smith was named as special counsel to investigate Trump by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022.

He led two federal cases into the Republican leader’s alleged mishandling of classified government documents and his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election that he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump had denied any wrongdoing, claiming US prosecutors were politically motivated.

Smith ultimately dropped the cases — neither one had gone to trial — after Trump was re-elected in November 2024, which would have shielded him from prosecution under a longstanding Justice Department practice.

Smith then resigned from the department shortly before Trump was inaugurated in January.

US prosecutors said in a report at that time that if Trump had not won the 2024 race, he would have been convicted for “criminal efforts to retain power” following the 2020 election.

The White House had no immediate comment on the Office of Special Counsel’s investigation into Smith, AP said on Saturday.