Jack Smith, the experienced war crimes prosecutor who unveiled an unprecedented federal indictment against former US president Donald J Trump on Friday 9 June, is no stranger to high-profile probes of public figures.
The Department of Justice veteran returned to the US last November after being appointed a special counsel on Friday by Attorney General Merrick Garland, who charged him conducting two probes into Mr Trump’s behaviour.
The first mission was to consider “whether any person or entity violated the law in connection with efforts to interfere with the lawful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or the certification of the Electoral College vote held on or about January 6, 2021”.
The second, which bore fruit in June with the unsealing of 37 criminal charges against Mr Trump, was about whether the former president had violated US laws prohibiting unlawful retention of national defence information and obstruction of justice.
It marks the first time in US history that an ex-president — let alone one who is a declared candidate in the next presidential election — faces criminal charges. But Mr Trump will not be first public figure who Mr Smith has put in the dock.
From 2010 to 2015,. he oversaw anti-corruption prosecutions against multiple US politicians in his role as the head of the Department of Justice public integrity section.
One of those cases was against former Virginia governor Robert McDonnell, a Republican against whom he secured a conviction on bribery charges, though the case was later thrown out by the US Supreme Court.
He also won a conviction of former GOP Representative Rick Renzi of Arizona, who recieved a sentence of three years in prison before being pardoned by Mr Trump.
A Harvard Law School graduate, Mr Smith also served in prosecutorial roles in US Attorney offices in the Middle District of Tennessee and the Eastern District of New York.
Prior to his appointment by Mr Garland, Mr Smith lived in the Dutch city of The Hague, where he has been serving as a “specialist prosecutor” overseeing investigations into war crimes in Kosovo since 2018.
He also served as a coordinator of investigations for the prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court from 2008 to 2010, where he worked on cases against foreign government officials and members of militias accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
Yet will even that be ample preparation for the punishing national spotlight to which he will now be subjected, including Mr Trump’s infamous social media broadsides?
Following the indictment in June, Mr Trump lashed out at Mr Smith, accusing him of being a “Trump hater” and “a deranged ’psycho’ that shouldn’t be involved in any case having to do with ‘justice,’ other than to look at Biden as a criminal – which he is!”
Mr Smith kept an even keel in his response. “Adherence to the rule of law is a bedrock principle of the Department of Justice, and our nation’s commitment to the rule of law sets an example for the world,” he told reporters later that day. “We have one set of laws in this country and they apply to everyone.”
