Former special counsel Jack Smith unleashed on the Department of Justice in an unusually fiery speech to a few hundred people during a private event, accusing the department of being “corrupted” and targeting President Donald Trump’s enemies.
Smith’s remarks, given during a private dinner in D.C. in April and reported by the New York Times this week, zeroed in on the DOJ’s decisions to investigate and prosecute some of Trump’s top political rivals, such as former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. The former special counsel accused the department of weaponizing its authority, the very same accusation that Republicans have widely leveled against Smith for bringing two criminal cases against Trump during the Biden administration.
“We have a Department of Justice today that targets people for criminal prosecution simply because the president doesn’t like them,” Smith said.
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A DOJ spokesperson told Fox News Digital the department expected “nothing less from Jack Smith whose sole mission was to politically prosecute a former president in an attempt to stop him from assuming office again.”
“This DOJ has ended the weaponization perpetrated by the Biden Administration and will continue to ensure no one is above the law,” the spokesperson said.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson called Smith a “lying hack” who prosecuted Trump “to try and benefit his Democrat cronies.”
“Jack Smith was specifically hired to spend years on a witch hunt to compile lies against the President, and it’s laughable that he would try and criticize this Administration for restoring integrity to the Justice Department,” Jackson told Fox News Digital.
Smith brought indictments against Trump alleging he illegally attempted to overturn the 2020 election and that he retained classified national defense information. Smith faced significant hurdles in the election case, while the classified documents case was tossed out by Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, who said he was unlawfully appointed as special counsel. Smith’s office was appealing Cannon’s ruling when Trump won the 2024 election. Weeks later, Smith moved to dismiss both federal cases, citing the Justice Department’s longstanding policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
Trump raged at Smith repeatedly, calling him a corrupt “thug” who belonged in jail. In January, Trump said on Truth Social that Smith was a “deranged animal” who should lose his law license. Smith is a longtime attorney who prosecuted war crimes in the Hague and led the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section during the Obama administration.
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Trump said he hoped the DOJ was investigating Smith, “including some of the crooked and corrupt witnesses that he was attempting to use in his case against me. The whole thing was a Democrat SCAM — A big price should be paid by them for what they have put our Country through!”
The president’s remarks directly clash with Smith’s rare, heated commentary at the private event, as both accuse the other of weaponization and as Smith faces threats of federal prosecution for targeting Trump, despite the DOJ and congressional investigators yet to uncover criminal wrongdoing by Smith.
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Smith said the DOJ has “been corrupted” over the past year but that he believed the department would “ultimately come through this better.”
Smith also accused the DOJ of turning a blind eye to cases that might reveal “inconvenient” facts that would contradict “narratives the president would like to press.”
Smith praised career prosecutors, saying a “central component” of the current DOJ’s strategy was to punish those like the several Minnesota attorneys who resigned in protest over internal disputes with how to handle an investigation into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent killing Renee Good, a 37-year-old anti-ICE activist.
“To erode the rule of law in this country you need to attack these people, and that is what we have seen since January 2025,” Smith said.
Smith’s comments were not all negative, however, according to the New York Times. He praised the DOJ for being more vocal than it was under Biden, a comment that comes as Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who replaced Pam Bondi a month ago, has taken on an aggressive, proactive media strategy. Blanche has held a series of press conferences where he has taken rounds of off-topic questions while also doing numerous wide-ranging interviews with friendly and tough media outlets.
A Smith representative had no comment.
Jack Smith escalates Trump DOJ clash with blistering private-event rebuke 2026 IUSTITIA.BG – Investigations 2009-2025 2026-05-08 18:38:21 Latest news World news Country news Most important news latest news most important latest of the day Justice Petar Nizamov Feathers Petar Nizamov- Feathers Justice bg iustitia.bg iustitia iusticia usticia investigation Burgas Bulgaria news news of the last hour news of the day news of today Bulgaria news The news from Bulgaria blitz news top news most important most commented latest news Boyko Borisov news weather coronavirus news news weather facebook youtube facebook instagram news today news of the last minutes news today today news news bg news leading news hot news bg news site for news all news news bg news of the last hour latest latest news bg news of today news today news today news of the last hour latest news today news bg news news 24 hours news vesti bg novini news world bird bg bivol bg bivol trud bg novini latest news today novinite bg news hello bulgaria political party coat of arms delyan peevski scandalous Bulgarian National Television Free Europe Television scandal exclusive live tv live right now tv tv online tv program bg live now tv news online tv online live court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas district court Burgas appellate court Burgas prosecutor Burgas prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev Prosecutor Geshev Tsatsarov Ministry of Internal Affairs Burgas ODMR Burgas ODPR Burgas police Burgas district police Burgas prosecutor Tsatsarov SGS cases Varna court chairman of the SGS court decisions on civil cases decisions on cases Plovdiv court decision of the court decisions cases Varna court criminal cases district district court decisions work in the court SGS chairman of the SGS judges Sofia court post judges Plovdiv court Plovdiv judges Plovdiv Supreme Court Inspectorate Supreme Court Supreme Judicial Council lawyer lawyer criminal cases lawyer civil cases lawyer marriage cases lawyer administrative criminal law criminal process civil law civil process administrative law constitutional law
