#jack smith

Jack Smith, the special counsel who investigated Donald Trump’s involvement in the 1/6/21 insurrection and his keeping classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House, gave a long interview with Nicolle Wallace over at MSNOW. We don’t actually learn more about the investigations, which is the point: the reports were released or not by judicial decision, and he’s going to let his work stand on its own. He’s certainly not going to break the judge’s order.

What we do get is a portrait of a civil servant doing his work competently and quietly. However much I wish his work could have had its impact, it’s still quite nice to be reminded there’s no deep state in the sense Trump talks about it, that independence used to be normal, and that there are still people in government trying hard, not to resist Trump but just to do the job we hired them to do on our behalf. It’s worth watching even a little if you could use that reminder.

Musical Break

In honor of this weekend’s nuptials.

More News on the Department of Justice and the Courts

The Bulwark: "How Trump’s DOJ Burned Its Most Important Asset" On the “presumption of regularity.”

Will Sommer, The Bulwark: "Kash Deploys the FBI Into the MAGA Civil Wars"

Robert Reich: "The Senate Should NOT Confirm This Person"

The New York Review of Books: “Trump v. Trump” (PF) On the norm-busting lawsuit that led to the weaponization fund.

The New York Times: “Trump Administration Sees Striking Exodus of Legal Talent” (PF)

Reason: "ICE Expected the Court to Accept … [Its] Basis for Detaining Petitioner, but Shield Its Rationale from the Court" (PF)

The New York Times: “As Trump Politicizes Justice Dept., Prosecutors Struggle With Grand Juries” (PF)

The Fulcrum: “Is There Anything That Trump’s Justice Department Lawyers Won’t Do?” (PF)

The New York Times: “‘Infuriated’ Former Judges Take on Trump” (PF)

Jack Smith broke his silence tonight, and he did not hold back.

The former special counsel sat down with our friend Nicolle Wallace on MS NOW and delivered one of the most direct warnings we've heard from anyone who served at the top of the Justice Department. Smith described what he's watching happen to the rule of law as "different in kind and scope to anything I've seen in my lifetime." He talked about prosecutors who have refused to go along with retribution cases even when it cost them their entire careers, about judges across the country who no longer trust the government attorneys standing in front of them, and about a Justice Department that he says has "jettisoned expertise" to the point where it can no longer function.

Smith also got personal. He explained that the moment he retained lawyers after resigning as special counsel, the Trump administration went after that law firm too, specifically, he said, because they didn't want him to have representation. He drew a sharp contrast between the investigations his team conducted and what he's watching now, pointing to James Comey, Letitia James, and Jerome Powell as cases where he says there is no real criminality, just a president "who has it out for these people" using former personal lawyers willing to act "regardless of the facts or law."

Asked point blank if he's afraid to speak out, Smith didn't flinch. "No, not at all," he said. "I am not going to be intimidated." He added that if the goal of going after him was to silence him or stop him from defending the agents and prosecutors under attack, "that is a grave miscalculation."

He says people still stop him on the street, and that most are grateful for his service. But make no mistake, Jack Smith is worried about what comes next, telling Wallace plainly that he is deeply concerned about the next election.

This is a former federal prosecutor, someone who spent his career avoiding the spotlight, now speaking out because he believes the moment demands it.

Trump LOSES IT as His WORST NIGHTMARE Jack Smith RISKS Indictment to Call him a THREAT to Democracy!

We all must be Jack Smith.

July 3, 2026

Robert B. Hubbell

Special Counsel Jack Smith rarely spoke to the press during his tenure as the lead investigator into Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election and refusal to return national security documents after leaving office. On Thursday, he sat for an interview with Nicolle Wallace on her MSNow nightly program.

The video is here: Exclusive: Jack Smith Warns Nicolle about unprecedented attacks on rule of law in first interview.

MSNow released a written companion piece that summarizes and quotes some of Smith’s remarks, here: MSNow, Jack Smith says rule of law under unprecedented attack in first TV interview since resignation.

Many aspects of the interview are remarkable. Just to hear Smith’s voice is unusual. In the pre-Trump DOJ, prosecutors avoided interviews; they allowed “indictments and pleadings” to speak for the DOJ. Under Trump’s DOJ, senior officials regularly appear on podcasts and Fox News to parrot Trump’s talking points.

But Smith felt compelled to speak out because of the extreme threats posed by Trump to our nation and members of the DOJ and FBI who still serve with integrity and honor.

Smith revealed himself to be a thoughtful, low-key professional who has served Democratic and Republican administrations. He noted that the standards for administering justice did not change between administrations—until Trump came along. He said,

I have investigated cases focusing on the facts and law throughout my career. We did this case the same way, under the same standards. The thing that’s important for your viewers to know is those standards are not meant to change from one administration to the next, and in my experience — until now — they haven’t.

That sea-change in the DOJ from an impartial agency pursuing justice to a legal paramilitary force attacking Trump’s political enemies is clear to even the most casual observers.

Indeed, Jack Smith is now the target of the Trump DOJ. After Smith testified before Congress and stated unequivocally that the evidence supported Trump’s conviction for election interference, Trump ordered Pam Bondi to start a criminal investigation of Smith.

Nicolle Wallace questioned Smith about Trump’s threats to indict him. Smith said he would not be intimidated:

There’s no way in the world if the thought was to go after me, so that I wouldn’t speak up about the corruption that’s happening or speak up to defend these agents and prosecutors — that is a grave miscalculation. There is no way I’m going to be intimidated.

We all need to be Jack Smith. He chooses not to be intimidated. Is he concerned, even afraid at times? Of course he is. But he has decided that speaking out and defending others who remain at the DOJ is more important than surrendering to fear of Trump’s threats.

Everyone who is protesting in marches and on streetcorners and overpasses has made a mental calculation of the possibility that Trump or his enablers will target them because they are exercising their First Amendment Rights. But they refuse to be intimidated. Just like Jack Smith. Just like the Civil Rights activists facing Southern sheriffs armed with clubs and police dogs. Just like the suffragettes, who were repeatedly jailed for proposing the radical idea that women should be allowed to vote. Just like the rag-tag members of the Continental Army who spent most of the war losing to the larger, better-equipped British army until their dogged persistence paid off.

Refusing to be intimidated is a choice, one that can be made even as we are anxious or frightened. The choice doesn’t have to be heroic. It can be as simple as putting one foot in front of the other until our slow, steady advance shifts the tide of history. (Credit to HCR for the thought.)

Jack Smith is a consummate professional with a distinguished career. But his interview shows that his defining characteristic is that he is a normal person, like you and me, who wants to do the right thing. If enough of us choose to be like Jack Smith, we will win. It is that simple and that hard.

The good news is that tens of millions of Americans are already following in Jack Smith’s footsteps, even if they don’t know it and would be embarrassed by the comparison. You are heroes of democracy, putting one foot in front of the other, refusing to quit until we achieve victory. Because of you, we will win. It is just a question of time.