Jack Smith (lawyer)

Smith grew up in Clay, New York, a suburb of Syracuse.[2][3] In 1987, he graduated from Liverpool High School[4] where he played football and baseball.[5] He earned his Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude from the State University of New York at Oneonta[6][7] and his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1994.[3]

After graduating from law school, Smith joined the Manhattan District Attorney's office, serving as Assistant District Attorney. He was a member of the sex crimes and domestic violence units of the DA's office.[8] He joined the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York in 1999. As an assistant U.S. attorney at the Brooklyn-based office, he prosecuted the police officers who sodomized Abner Louima, and secured the death penalty against Ronell Wilson, who murdered two members of the New York Police Department.[3][9][10]

From 2008 to 2010, Smith worked as Investigation Coordinator for the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.[11][10] In that position, he oversaw cases against government officials and militia members accused of war crimes and genocide.[3][9] In 2010, Smith returned to the U.S. to become chief of the U.S. Department of Justice's Public Integrity Section (PIS).[2][10] Among his first responsibilities was evaluating current investigations, and he recommended closing investigations into several members of Congress.[3][lower-alpha 1] He spent five years as chief of the PIS, where he prosecuted a variety of corruption cases, including those against Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, U.S. Representative Rick Renzi, New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and Jeffrey Sterling, a CIA agent who shared national secrets.[12][10]

In 2015, Smith became an assistant U.S. attorney in the Middle District of Tennessee, at Nashville.[13][10] He became the Acting United States Attorney in March 2017 upon the resignation of David Rivera, and resigned effective September 2017 after the nomination of Donald Q. Cochran.[14] Smith became the vice president and head of litigation for Hospital Corporation of America in 2017.[15]

On May 7, 2018, Smith was named to a four-year term as chief prosecutor for the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, investigating war crimes committed in the Kosovo War,[8][9][13] including the case of Salih Mustafa.[16] He took up the post on September 11, 2018, and was appointed to a second term on May 8, 2022.[8]

On November 18, 2022, United States Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith special counsel to oversee the criminal investigations into Donald Trump's actions regarding the January 6 United States Capitol attack, and Trump's handling and storage of government records, including classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.[9][12][17][18] He worked initially from the Netherlands while recovering from a fractured leg which was injured when he was struck by a scooter while cycling.[3] Smith has since returned to the United States.[19]

• US Department of Justice Director's Award[20]
• US Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service[21]
• Federal Bar Association's Younger Federal Attorney Award[21]
• Eastern District Association's Charles Rose Award[20]
• Henry L. Stimson Medal of the New York County Bar Association[20]
• Harvard Law School Wasserstein Fellowship[22]

Smith is a competitive triathlete despite not becoming a swimmer until he was in his mid-thirties.[23][24] In July 2011, he married Katy Chevigny,[25] a documentary filmmaker[24] known for Becoming, an award-winning 2020 documentary of Michelle Obama. They have a daughter.[24] The couple has been living in the Netherlands since 2018.[5]

• "Jack Smith". United States Department of Justice. April 13, 2015. Archived from the original on November 26, 2022. Retrieved November 18, 2022.