Federal agency opens inquiry into ex-special counsel Jack Smith over Trump investigations | Trump administration

The US Special Advice Office, an independent federal agency, confirmed on Saturday at NBC News that it was investigating the former prosecutor of the Ministry of Justice Jack Smith for possible violations of the Hatch law.

Smith has conducted Donald Trump’s share in January 6 Capitol Riot and an alleged poorly managed with classified documents.

Confirmation of an investigation comes after the Arkansas senator Tom Cotton, a Republican, asked last week that Smith, 56, is the subject of an investigation for an “unprecedented interference in the 2024 elections”.

The Hatch Act, a federal law adopted in 1939, limits certain political activities of federal employees. Trump, as well as other eminent republican legislators, argued that Smith’s investigations on Trump constituted illegal political activity.

Smith was appointed special lawyer by the prosecutor general of the time, Merrick Garland, in 2022 – three days after Trump announced his candidacy for a second term – to investigate potential interference with the 2020 elections and the processing of classified documents.

However, the US Special Council Bureau, the Federal Agency investigating Smith, is different from the type of special consulting position appointed by the Ministry of Justice which was occupied by Smith.

As an independent federal agency, he does not have the power to carry criminal charges, but can rather seek disciplinary measures for an employee of the federal government or refer his conclusions to the Ministry of Justice for Investigation.

In a series of publications on social networks on Wednesday, Cotton said that Smith’s legal actions “were nothing more than a tool for the campaigns of Biden and Harris. It is not only contrary to ethics, it is most likely an illegal campaign activity of a public office.”

Cotton said Smith “had put pressure for a hurry and pressed for President Trump, with the selection of the jury to start two weeks before the Iowa caucus. No other case of this magnitude and this complexity would be judged quickly.”

Smith finally brought two acts of criminal accusation against Trump in 2023, but resigned in January of this year before one or the other judgment.

His resignation intervened shortly after the Ministry of Justice asked a federal court of appeal to overthrow a judge’s order, blocking the release of his investigation report focused on Trump’s alleged efforts to cancel the 2020 presidential election. A second report by Smith, on Trump processing of classified documents, was also blocked by the publication.