Without evidence, Trump and his allies accuse former US special prosecutor of illegal political activity.<\/p>\n
Officials in the United States have launched an investigation into Jack Smith<\/a>, the former special prosecutor who led two cases against Donald Trump, US media outlets are reporting.<\/p>\n The Associated Press, NBC News and other US news outlets confirmed on Saturday that the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency, has opened an investigation into Smith on allegations of illegal political activity.<\/p>\n Without offering any evidence of wrongdoing,\u00a0Trump and his Republican allies, including Senator Tom Cotton, have accused Smith of violating the Hatch Act, a federal law that bans certain public officials from engaging in political activity.<\/p>\n In a social media post<\/a> this week, Cotton accused Smith of being a \u201cpartisan Democrat who weaponized the law\u201d against Trump in the lead-up to the 2024 US presidential election that he ultimately won.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve asked the Office of Special Counsel to investigate his actions that likely violated the law to influence the election,\u201d Cotton wrote on X on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Smith was named as special counsel to investigate Trump by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022.<\/p>\n He led two federal cases into the Republican leader\u2019s alleged mishandling of classified government documents<\/a> and his efforts to overturn<\/a> the results of the 2020 election that he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.<\/p>\n Trump had denied any wrongdoing, claiming US prosecutors were politically motivated.<\/p>\n Smith ultimately dropped the cases \u2014 neither one had gone to trial \u2014 after Trump was re-elected in November 2024, which would have shielded him from prosecution under a longstanding Justice Department practice.<\/p>\n Smith then resigned from the department<\/a> shortly before Trump was inaugurated in January.<\/p>\n