- Jack Smith, the U.S. special counsel who on Tuesday filed a second federal criminal indictment against Donald Trump, has a reputation for winning tough cases against war criminals, mobsters and crooked cops.
"It was fueled by lies," Smith said in a brief two-minute press conference after filing the indictment. "Lies by the defendant, targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government: a nation's process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election." When Smith is not busy competing in Ironman swim-cycle-run triathlon races, say former colleagues, he is a dogged investigator who is open-minded and unafraid to pursue the truth. They describe him as just as tenacious in seeking to have criminal charges dropped for the innocent as he is to convict the guilty.
"Why did they wait so long? Because they wanted to put it right in the middle of my campaign. Prosecutorial Misconduct!" Trump said on his Truth Social site. "We were praised if we investigated something and demonstrated that the target of the investigation was innocent," Harrison added.Smith was involved in the prosecution of Charles Schwarz, one of several former New York City police officers who were implicated in a high-profile police brutality case involving Abner Louima, a jailed Black inmate who had been assaulted by police with a broomstick.