Who is Jack Smith? Special prosecutor hailed online in wake of Donald Trump's indictment

In a decision made by Special Counsel for the United States Department of Justice Jack Smith, former president Donald Trump has been indicted on seven charges, including conspiring to obstruct a criminal investigation as well as destruction or falsification of records, and violating the Espionage Act.

In November 2022, Smith, who had been chosen by Attorney General Merrick Garland, was given the job of determining whether or not Trump or any of his associates had broken the law by bringing the confidential papers to his Mar-a-Lago resort after leaving the White House and if they had hampered the inquiry.

In recent weeks, there had been several high-profile interviews and a former White House official told prosecutors that Trump knew the right way to declassify documents and sometimes did it right while he was in office. This contradicted Trump's claim that he automatically declassified everything he took to Mar-a-Lago.

Donald Trump has repeatedly denied any misconduct. He and his right-wing associates have denounced the investigation as biased and an attempt to weaponize the federal agency. Addressing the recent news on his social media platform, Truth Social, he wrote:

“The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax.”

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All you need to know about Jack Smith

Born on June 5, 1969, Jack Smith is a native of Clay, New York, which is a suburb of Syracuse. He attended Liverpool High School and then earned his Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude from Oneonta's State University of New York. In 1994, he graduated from Harvard Law School.

During the 1990s, Jack Smith served as a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney's office before changing to an equivalent position at the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn. In the span of ten years, he climbed the ranks to hold various supervisory roles, leading up to his appointment as the chief of criminal litigation.

While his tenure went on, he led a team of prosecutors who worked on a wide range of cases, from those involving gangs and violent crime to financial fraud and public corruption.

Having worked as a prosecutor at both local and federal levels, and even serving at the International Criminal Court, Smith has a remarkable career in law. From 2010 to 2015, Smith was in charge of overseeing corruption cases as the chief of the Justice Department's public integrity unit.

When he arrived, the team was struggling from the failure of a criminal case against former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, a Republican. Jack Smith concluded many high-profile investigations of Congress members without charging them during his first few months on the job.

One of his more well-known corruption cases involved the conviction of Republican ex-governor of Virginia Robert McDonnell, which the Supreme Court later overturned, and Republican ex-representative Rick Renzi, whom Trump pardoned in his final hours as president.

After serving as an assistant US attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, Smith accepted the role of acting US attorney in early 2017. Later that year, he took the position of Vice President of Litigation for the Hospital Corporation of America.

In the past few years, Jack Smith stayed outside of the United States because he was the top investigator for a special court in The Hague. He took on this job in 2018 and probed war crimes in Kosovo.

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Twitter reactions on Jack Smith's decision against Donald Trump

After the news of Jack Smith's charges against Donald Trump went viral, Twitterati hailed him. Several users thanked the special prosecutor for his investigation in bringing out the apparent truth, which has been challenged by Trump.

Some of the reactions are:

Screenshot of a Twitter user remarking on Smith's decision against Donald Trump.

Donald Trump is currently gearing up for the 2024 presidential elections and is currently up against Ron DeSantis.