Jack Smith lawyers say basis of ethics probe against him is "imaginary"

Former Trump authoritative nether probe

Former Trump authoritative nether probe for imaginable Hatch Act violations 03:04

Lawyers for erstwhile peculiar counsel Jack Smith connected Monday defended him successful the look of an morals probe into his actions investigating President Trump earlier the 2024 election, referring to the ground of the probe arsenic "imaginary and unfounded."

Earlier this month, the Office of the Special Counsel — which is not affiliated with Smith's erstwhile presumption — launched a probe into Smith's handling of 2 transgression investigations into Mr. Trump's handling of classified documents and alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election. Mr. Trump pleaded not blameworthy and denied immoderate wrongdoing.

File: Special Prosecutor Jack Smith addresses reporters aft his expansive assemblage has issued much indictments of erstwhile President Donald Trump in Photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Monday's letter, a transcript of which was obtained by CBS News, was the archetypal effect from Smith and his representatives aft the autarkic national bureau confirmed that it had launched an probe into Smith for imaginable violations of the Hatch Act, a national instrumentality that "limits definite governmental activities of national employees."

In a three-page missive to the acting caput of the office, Jamieson Greer, Smith's attorneys Lanny Breuer and Peter Koski, said determination is "no basis" for an accusation that Smith violated the Hatch Act and that the allegations of wrongdoing are "wholly without merit." 

"Mr. Smith was fiercely committed to making prosecutorial decisions based solely connected the evidence, helium steadfastly followed applicable Department of Justice guidelines and the Principles of Federal Prosecution, and helium did not fto the pending predetermination power his investigative oregon prosecutorial decision-making," Smith's attorneys said.

Smith was appointed by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland successful November 2022 to instrumentality implicit the 2 investigations, but resigned successful January, days earlier Mr. Trump returned to office. 

GOP Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas called for an probe into Smith's behaviour and alleged that Smith had pushed for a "rushed trial" of Trump earlier the 2024 statesmanlike election.

"They were the actions of a governmental histrion masquerading arsenic a nationalist official," Cotton wrote connected X. "That's wherefore I've asked this unprecedented interference successful the 2024 predetermination beryllium instantly investigated by OSC."

Smith's attorneys, however, argued that authorities did not play a relation successful the prosecutions and that nary laws prohibited Smith from continuing his prosecutions into Mr. Trump going into the location agelong of the run trail.

"This probe is premised connected a partisan ailment that suggests the mean cognition of the transgression justness strategy should beryllium disrupted by the whims of a governmental contest. But the conception that justness should output to authorities is antithetical to the regularisation of law," Smith's attorneys wrote. "Moreover, the proposition that the Hatch Act tin beryllium violated by taking regular procedural steps to prosecute a lawsuit involving a campaigner for nationalist bureau is unprecedented and risks interfering with the enforcement of our national transgression laws."

Smith's actions, the attorneys said, "were accordant with the decisions of a authoritative who has devoted his vocation to pursuing the facts and the law, without fearfulness oregon favour and without respect for the governmental consequences, not due to the fact that of them."

In May, Mr. Trump chose right-wing podcast big and MAGA loyalist Paul Ingrassia to pb the Office of Special Counsel, but his information is stalled successful the Senate. Mr. Trump fired the erstwhile caput of the office, Hampton Dellinger, successful February.

In summation to investigations into Smith, the investigators who worked with him person besides been investigated oregon fired. 

At slightest 35 Justice Department employees who investigated President Trump and his allies person been fired since Mr. Trump took office, sources told CBS News, and the staffers were identified by the Justice Department's alleged "weaponization moving group," which Attorney General Pam Bondi established soon aft she was confirmed.

Zak Hudak contributed to this report.

• Donald Trump
• Jack Smith