Jack Smith hits back at claims that Trump prosecutions were politically motivated

In a rare interview former justice department special counsel Jack Smith has hit back against accusations that the federal prosecutions of Donald Trump he oversaw were politically motivated, calling the claims “absolutely ludicrous”.

Speaking with former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann at the UK’s University College London in an interview last week, Smith defended the integrity of the criminal investigations he led and his work as special counsel in the Biden administration.

“The idea that politics played a role in who worked on that case, or who got chosen, is ludicrous,” Smith said in the interview which was posted online on Tuesday.

Smith led two federal investigations that resulted in unprecedented indictments against a former president, when Trump was charged in 2023 – one case concerning his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and the other involving his handling of classified materials after leaving office and the obstruction of government efforts to retrieve them. Trump pleaded not guilty in both cases and denied any wrongdoing.

Both cases were dismissed following Trump’s re-election in 2024, consistent with a justice department policy barring indictment of a sitting president, which Trump became again in January 2025.

Smith, who resigned from the justice department in January, said in the interview that his special counsel team had acted independently and were not interested in politics.

“Those people I brought in were all former longtime, former federal prosecutors who had worked in both Republican and Democratic administrations over and over again,” he said. “These are team players who don’t want to do anything but good in the world. They’re not interested in politics.

“I get very concerned when I see how easy it is to demonize these people for political ends when these are the very sort of people I think we should be celebrating,” he added. “The idea that politics would play a role in big cases like this, it’s absolutely ludicrous and it’s totally contrary to my experience as a prosecutor.”

When describing the actions of the current justice department under Trump, Smith said that “nothing like what we see now has ever gone on.”

He pointed to the department’s dismissal of a federal corruption case against Eric Adams, New York City’s mayor.

“This case in New York City, where the case against the mayor was dismissed in the hopes that he would support the president’s political agenda,” Smith said. “I mean, just so you know, nothing like it has ever happened that I’ve ever heard of.”

He also criticized the recent indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, who has been charged with one count of making a false statement to Congress and one count of obstruction of a congressional proceeding, which he denies.

“This latest prosecution of the former director of the FBI,” Smith said, “just reeks of lack of process.”

“Process shouldn’t be a political issue,” Smith said. “If there’s rules in the department about how to bring a case, follow those rules, you can’t say, ‘I want this outcome, let me throw the rules out’.”

Smith said that the firings and attacks on public servants, “particularly nonpartisan public servants” has a “cost for our country that is incalculable” adding that “it’s hard to communicate to folks how much that is going to cost us.”

“If you think getting rid of the people who know most about national security is going to make our country safer, you do not know anything about national security,” he said. “And that’s happening throughout the department – it makes me concerned.”

Smith also noted how some career prosecutors have left the justice department.

“They’re being asked to do things that they think are wrong and because they are not political people, they’re not going to do them,” Smith said. “And I think that explains why you’ve seen the resignations you’ve seen.”

The White House and Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian.

In a statement to NBC, the White House said: “The Trump Administration will continue to deliver the truth to the American people while restoring integrity and accountability to our justice system.”

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, House Republicans requested that Smith testify about what they described as his “partisan and politically motivated prosecutions” of Trump.