Jerry Lamps/AP
Prosecutor Jack Smith attends the Kosovo Special Court in The Hague, Netherlands, November 9, 2020.
CNN
—
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s months-long investigation into President Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents has entered a new chapter by indicting the former president on seven counts.
The former president’s attorney, Jim Trusty, told CNN Thursday that Trump faces obstruction of justice, destruction or falsification of records, conspiracy, and misrepresentation charges, as well as charges under the Espionage Act. . The former president wrote to Truth Social that he was informed of the indictment by the Department of Justice and was “summoned to appear in federal court in Miami at 3 p.m. Tuesday.”
The special counsel declined to comment Thursday night.
Smith, who was appointed Attorney General Merrick Garland, launched a probe in November to determine whether Trump and his aides committed a crime by taking classified documents to the Mar-a-Lago resort after they left the White House. I was tasked with investigating whether it interfered. The investigation has escalated further in recent weeks, with multiple high-profile interviews and a former White House official telling prosecutors that Trump knew proper procedures for declassifying documents and did so correctly while in office. He said he had done so, reversing Trump’s claim that he automatically declassified anything he took with him. He went with him to Mar-a-Lago. CNN reported earlier this week that the Justice Department informed the former president’s legal team that he was under investigation. Such notices are often strong indications that prosecution may follow.
Mr Trump has denied wrongdoing. He and his right-wing allies have accused the investigation of being partisan and weaponizing the federal government.
“The corrupt Biden administration has informed my lawyers that I have been indicted for an apparently Boxes hoax,” Trump wrote to Truth Social.
But Smith, who is also overseeing the Justice Department’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, is investigating lawmakers from both parties and has uncovered some of the most high-profile political corruption cases in recent memory. with mixed results.
The Special Counsel’s experience ranges from prosecuting a sitting U.S. Senator to prosecuting a gang member who was ultimately convicted of murdering a New York City police officer. His career spanned multiple positions in the Justice Department and international courts, and he was able to keep a relatively low profile in the often cocky legal world until his appointment.
In addition to serving as a prosecutor at the local and federal levels, Mr. Smith served at the International Criminal Court before overseeing corruption cases from 2010 to 2015 as Director of the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Division.
Mr. Smith said in 2012, when the department failed to convict former Senator and Democratic vice-presidential candidate John Edwards in a corruption case, and in 2014, when Republican and then-Virginia Gov. He headed the division when McDonnell was indicted. He also oversaw an investigation into former House Republican leader Tom DeLay, which closed without filing charges in 2010.
Mr. Smith continued as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of Tennessee and was appointed acting U.S. attorney in early 2017. Later that year, he became vice president of litigation for American Hospital Corporation.
In recent years, Smith has lived outside the United States as chief prosecutor of the Hague Special Court, a position he assumed in 2018 investigating war crimes in Kosovo.
This story has been updated with additional information.
