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Special Counsel Jack Smith resigned from his position at the Justice Department on Friday, Fox News reported.
The resignation, which had already been expected since President-elect Trump was elected in November, was quietly announced in a footnote to a court filing on Saturday.
“The Special Counsel completed his work and submitted his final confidential report on January 7, 2025, and became independent from the Department on January 10,” the memo states.
Mr. Smith was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022 to investigate the 2020 election interference case against Mr. Trump related to the January 6 incident and the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case. In 2017, Mr. Smith served as acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee during the first Trump administration.
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In November, Special Counsel Jack Smith asked that charges filed against Trump be dropped in a case accusing him of interfering with the certification of the 2020 election. (Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The news comes as the country awaits the release of Smith’s report on election interference. Recent court filings indicate that Garland plans to release his report soon, possibly before President Trump takes office on January 20th.
On Friday, a federal appeals court judge ruled not to block the release of Smith’s report.
“As I have made clear for every special counsel I have served with since taking office, I am committed to making the special counsel’s report as public as possible, consistent with legal requirements and Department policy. ” Garland wrote in a recent letter. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.).
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Jack Smith speaks at a press conference in Washington, DC in 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
After Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Smith filed a motion to diminish his lawsuit against the president-elect. In late November, Smith asked a judge to drop the charges against President-elect Trump in the D.C. case.
Before asking for the lawsuit to be dismissed, Mr. Smith filed a motion in Washington, D.C., to override all deadlines in the 2020 election interference lawsuit against Mr. Trump, a ruling that was widely expected after Mr. Trump’s victory. Ta. After the lawsuit was dropped, President Trump responded to the move by claiming that the investigation “should never have been filed.”
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The special counsel’s resignation comes as the report is expected to be released, likely before President-elect Trump takes office on January 20th. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“These lawsuits, like all the others I have been forced to undergo, are empty and lawless and should never have been filed,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. said. “This was a political hijacking, and it was a low point in our nation’s history that something like this could happen. But I persevered against all odds, and I won. I will make America great again.” Do it!”
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman and Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.
Andrea Margolis is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. Readers can send story tips to andrea.margolis@fox.com.
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