In a rare interview last week, Jack Smith tackled topics from international tribunals to transparency in prosecutorial procedures and the presence of cameras in U.S. federal courts, clarifying the role of the special counsel. He dismissed accusations from President Donald Trump and his supporters calling his investigations into the January 6 incident and Mar-a-Lago a politically motivated attack, labeling such claims as “absolutely ludicrous.”

The discussion titled “State of the United States” took place with Andrew Weissmann, once a senior figure under Robert Mueller, at the UCL Centre for Global Constitutional Democracy on Oct. 8 and was shared on YouTube this past Tuesday.

After the 33-minute mark, Weissmann shifted the discussion to Smith”s special counsel probe of Trump.

Smith compared his responsibilities to those of the Watergate special prosecutor, refuting the idea that he acted independently without guidance. He explained that special counsels are generally appointed amid conflicts of interest or unusual circumstances, when the attorney general believes an unbiased investigation is necessary to determine whether legal action should be taken.

Smith emphasized his adherence to Department of Justice regulations, noting that he required approval from the Public Integrity Section to proceed with charges related to election fraud.

Additionally, Smith strongly supported the dedication of his team members, highlighting that most were already engaged in the investigations before his appointment as special counsel.

“These are team players who don’t want anything but to do good in the world. They’re not interested in politics, and I get very concerned when I see how easy it is to demonize these people for political ends when these are the very sort of people, I think, we should be celebrating,” he said. “The people on my special counsel team were like that. The idea that politics played a role in who worked on that case or who got chosen is ludicrous.”

“The idea that politics would play a role in big cases like this is absolutely ludicrous and it’s totally contrary to my experience as a prosecutor, from, again, the time I was a junior prosecutor,” Smith added.

Smith said his first boss would have “tossed [him] out a window” had he gone to him with political considerations about whether or not to bring a case.

As for the Mar-a-Lago case, Smith said “we had tons of evidence” that Trump willfully withheld classified documents and obstructed their return, unlike in special counsel Robert Hur’s probe of then-President Joe Biden.

“And the obstructive evidence, publicly saying these are my documents, or things like that, and I can keep them. The evidence to not give the documents back when the government even tried to get them back before there was a criminal investigation, those sort of things […] that helps prove willfulness,” Smith said, noting that there was much more “willfulness” evidence and about four times as many documents allegedly in Trump’s possession than there were in Biden’s possession.

Smith, famously appointed by Biden’s U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents and role in Jan. 6, ran into a buzzsaw in Florida that saw his appointment invalidated by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, in July 2024.

After Trump was elected once again as president, the Jan. 6 case disappeared in much the same way, and mass pardons for his supporters followed.

Smith’s remarks come at a time when Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee seek his testimony about his “team’s partisan and politically motivated prosecutions of President Donald J. Trump and his co-defendants.”

Watch the full interview here: