U.S. federal officials have confirmed to the BBC that they have opened an investigation into former Special Counsel Jack Smith, who led two high-profile federal criminal cases against President Donald Trump before resigning from his post earlier this year.
The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) has confirmed to the BBC that an investigation into Jack Smith is underway but declined to provide further details at this stage.
Smith was appointed as Special Counsel in 2022 to investigate the alleged mishandling of classified documents by Trump and the former president’s alleged attempts to interfere in the 2020 election.
American media reported on Saturday that the OSC is examining whether Smith violated the Hatch Act, a U.S. law that prohibits government officials from engaging in certain political activities.
The investigation follows a call by Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who urged the OSC to investigate Smith for what he described as “unprecedented interference in the 2024 election.”
Smith had been appointed by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022 to oversee the federal probes into Trump. Both cases resulted in criminal charges against the former president, who pleaded not guilty and denounced the prosecutions as politically motivated.
The cases were later closed following Trump’s victory in the November 2024 presidential election, as U.S. Department of Justice rules prohibit prosecuting a sitting president.
Before taking on the Trump investigations, Jack Smith led the Special Prosecutor’s Office in The Hague, where he was overseeing the indictment against senior leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) before leaving for the U.S. to begin the Trump probes.
