Former special counsel Jack Smith responds to federal investigation against him about his prosecution of Donald Trump

A federal watchdog investigation into former special counsel Jack Smith’s two prosecutions against President Donald Trump is based on “imaginary and unfounded” accusations, attorneys for Smith said in a letter obtained by CNN.

The letter dated Monday from Smith’s lawyers is the first time the former special counsel has responded to accusations leveled against his investigations into the president by conservative lawmakers and media outlets, including the current attorney general.

Smith spearheaded the two federal criminal cases brought against Trump - one for allegedly mishandling classified documents and another for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Both cases were abandoned by Smith after Trump won reelection.

“Mr. Smith followed well-established legal principles in conducting the investigations into President Trump, and the courts presiding over the resulting prosecutions have already rejected the spurious allegations that the manner in which Mr. Smith prosecuted these cases was somehow improper,” his attorneys Lanny Breuer and Peter Koski wrote.

The New York Times first reported the letter.

The letter was addressed to Jamieson Greer, the head of the Office of the Special Counsel, an independent watchdog office that has no affiliation with the office Smith used to run. Trump appointed Greer to the role in an acting capacity after he fired the previous head of the office, who was appointed by President Joe Biden for a five-year term.

Greer’s office has launched an investigation into whether Smith improperly engaged in political activities through his prosecutions against Trump. The investigation was made public after Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas claimed that “Smith used his DOJ role to influence the election” in favor of Biden’s and Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaigns.

Smith’s attorneys this week said that the investigation is “premised on a partisan complaint that suggests the ordinary operation of the criminal justice system should be disrupted by the whims of a political contest.”

“But the notion that justice should yield to politics is antithetical to the rule of law,” it says.

The Office of Special Counsel declined to comment.

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