SMITH
John

• 1. Career

John L. Smith, known professionally as Jack Smith, is an American attorney who has served in the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) as an assistant United States Attorney, acting United States Attorney, and as head of the department's Public Integrity Section. He was also the chief prosecutor at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, an international tribunal at The Hague tasked with investigating and prosecuting war crimes in the Kosovo War.

In November 2022, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland named Smith an independent special counsel, responsible for overseeing two preexisting DOJ criminal investigations into former president Donald Trump: an investigation regarding Trump's role in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and an investigation into mishandling of government records, including classified documents.

Career

Smith joined the Manhattan District Attorney's office after graduation, serving as Assistant District Attorney where he was a member of the sex crimes and domestic violence units. He joined the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York in 1999. At the office, he prosecuted the police officers who sodomized Abner Louima, and secured the death penalty against Ronell Wilson, who murdered two members of the New York Police Department.

From 2008 to 2010, Smith worked for the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, overseeing cases against government officials and militia members accused of war crimes and genocide. In 2010, Smith was put in charge of the United States Department of Justice's Public Integrity Section (PIS). Among his first responsibilities was evaluating current investigations, and he recommended closing several into members of Congress. He spent five years as chief of the PIS, where he prosecuted a variety of corruption cases, including those against Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, U.S. Representative Rick Renzi, New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and Jeffrey Sterling, a CIA agent who shared national secrets.

In 2015, Smith became an assistant United States Attorney in the Middle District of Tennessee. He became the Acting United States Attorney in March 2017 upon the resignation of David Rivera, and resigned effective September 2017 after the nomination of Donald Q. Cochran. Smith became the vice president and head of litigation for Hospital Corporation of America in 2017.

On May 7, 2018, Smith was named to a four-year term as chief prosecutor for the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, investigating war crimes committed in the Kosovo War, including the case of Salih Mustafa. He took up the post on September 11, 2018, and was appointed to a second term on May 8, 2022.