Jan. 11 (UPI) — Special Counsel Jack Smith, who pursued two criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump, has resigned from the Justice Department, according to a federal court filing made Saturday.
Smith had completed work on the two cases against Trump over the president-elect’s retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago Resort home in Palm Beach, Fla.
He resigned from the Justice Department effective Friday, according to the federal court filing made Saturday in the U.S. District Court for Southern Florida, which revealed the information in a footnote.
The note says the “special counsel completed his work and submitted his final confidential report on Jan. 7, 2025, and separated from the [Justice] Department on Jan. 10.”
The court filing is signed by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton, U.S. Attorney Markenzy LaPointe and attorney Elizabeth Shapiro.
The footnote indicating Smith’s resignation appears beneath the federal attorney’s names at the bottom of Page 10 of the filing, which challenges District Judge Aileen Cannon’s stay blocking the release of a final report regarding the classified documents case against Trump and two co-defendants.
The matter now is before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which Boynton argues invalidates Cannon’s stay because her jurisdiction is within the district court and not the federal appellate court.
Smith in November announced his intention to resign from the Department of Justice before Trump was sworn in on Jan. 20.