Jack Smith, the special prosecutor who oversaw two cases against Trump, resigns from DOJ

Jack Smith resigned from the Department of Justice. The special prosecutor, who was appointed by Merrick Garland, stepped aside after overseeing two federal investigations against Donald Trump: the classified documents investigation and the Jan. 6, 2021 investigation.

As Politico reported, Smith resigned on Friday. The DOJ made this known in a document sent in two volumes to Judge Aileen Cannon, who recently blocked the release of the special prosecutor’s final report. The document was recently delivered to the attorney general.

However, the Department of Justice argues that Judge Cannon does not have the authority to prevent Garland from releasing Smith's findings.

The special prosecutor was initially appointed by Garland in 2022 to be in charge of the two aforementioned cases. However, both were dismissed after Trump defeated Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 presidential election.

The first case to fall was the Jan. 6 one, which Judge Tanya Chutkan dismissed at Smith's request. "The court will grant the government permission to dismiss this case," the judge wrote, closing an indictment from which four felonies had emanated against the former president.

A day later, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals announced the final dismissal of the classified documents case on November 26. While Judge Cannon had already dismissed the case in mid-July, claiming that Smith had been irregularly appointed, the special prosecutor was appealing in hopes of reopening it in the near future.