The federal government reportedly launched a probe into the actions of special prosecutor Jack Smith who investigated President Trump’s criminal cases beginning in 2022.
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel said Saturday officials would look into Smith’s potential violation of the Hatch Act, which restricts government employees from political involvement, according to NBC News.
The office did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
The investigation comes after Trump and his allies have previously alleged that Smith went after Trump without legal standing in an effort to thwart his second campaign for the presidency.
Former Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith three days before the president announced his reelection bid.
Still, GOP lawmakers said the special prosecutor needs to be investigated.
“Jack Smith’s legal actions were nothing more than a tool for the [former President] Biden and [former Vice President] Harris campaigns. This isn’t just unethical, it is very likely illegal campaign activity from a public office,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) wrote in a Wednesday post on the social media platform X.
“Special Counsel Smith pushed for an out-of-the-ordinary, rushed trial for President Trump, with jury selection to begin just two weeks before the Iowa caucuses. No other case of this magnitude and complexity would come to trial this quickly,” the Arkansas senator added in a separate post.
However, Smith has long defended his actions.
“The ultimate decision to bring charges against Mr. Trump was mine. It is a decision I stand behind fully,” Smith wrote in his final report published in mid-January, adding that Garland nor anyone else at the Justice Department pushed him to prosecute Trump.
“To all who know me well, the claim from Mr. Trump that my decisions as a prosecutor were influenced or directed by the Biden administration or other political actors is, in a word, laughable.”
Smith ultimately resigned from the Justice Department (DOJ) after Trump’s November win and dismissed charges against the president-elect arguing that he believed he would have scored a conviction against the leader if the legal battles played out in court.
“The throughline of all of Mr. Trump’s criminal efforts was deceit-knowingly false claims of election fraud-and the evidence shows that Mr. Trump used these lies as a weapon to defeat a federal government function foundational to the United States’ democratic process,” Smith wrote.
“Until Mr. Trump obstructed it, this democratic process had operated in a peaceful and orderly manner for more than 130 years,” he added.
Earlier this month, Attorney General Pam Bondi fired 20 additional employees tied to Smith weeks before the Office of Special Counsel said it would investigate the prosecutor.
The independent agency can only research Smith’s actions and seek disciplinary actions for the federal employee. Investigators can then present findings to the DOJ for criminal charges.
