Former special counsel Jack Smith, who led two criminal prosecutions against President Donald Trump before the real estate mogul’s 2024 election victory, fired back against a reported investigation into his handling of those cases, according to a letter obtained by USA TODAY.
“This investigation is premised on a partisan complaint that suggests the ordinary operation of the criminal justice system should be disrupted by the whims of a political contest,” wrote two lawyers, Lanny A. Breuer and Peter Koski, on Smith’s behalf.
The investigation into Smith is one of several under the Trump administration that have prompted fears that Trump is using his second term to engage in a revenge campaign against perceived enemies. Some of the president’s supporters argue that such investigations are important to correct previous overreach.
On Aug. 22, FBI agents raided the home of former national security adviser and fierce Trump critic John Bolton. The bureau said it had court authorization for the search, but didn’t elaborate on the specifics of the investigation. The Justice Department has also reportedly opened an investigation into New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought a major civil fraud lawsuit against Trump and his business associates.
In their Aug. 25 letter, Smith’s lawyers said he took “routine procedural steps” for someone prosecuting a candidate for public office, and that the current investigation into his actions is “unprecedented.”
The reported investigation was prompted by a July 30 letter from Republican Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, who suggested that Smith was seeking to unlawfully influence the November presidential election by filing briefs quickly and pushing for quick court dates. Cotton pointed to the Hatch Act, which restricts federal employees from engaging in political activity.
“Many of Smith’s legal actions seem to have no rationale except for an attempt to affect the 2024 election results – actions that would violate federal law,” Cotton argued in his letter.
However, Smith’s lawyers wrote in their letter that the U.S. Supreme Court itself agreed to expedite an appeal, and that Smith followed the example set by a special prosecutor who investigated President Richard Nixon in the 1970s.
“Given the lengthy procedural record and careful attention afforded to these issues by the judges overseeing the Special Counsel prosecutions, this office should not relitigate the baseless allegations that were unsuccessfully advanced before the federal courts,” Smith’s lawyers wrote. Their letter was addressed to Jamieson Greer, the acting head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which is running the investigation into Smith’s conduct in the Trump cases.
Richard Painter, a White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush who warned about Trump’s threats to prosecute his rivals during the latest presidential campaign, posted on X that he didn’t see how Smith’s actions would amount to a Hatch Act violation. Painter noted that Smith’s court filings have been accepted by the courts.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jack Smith criticizes ‘partisan’ inquiry into his Trump prosecutions
