Saw it on the TV news. Do your own research.
Smith's experience ranges from prosecuting a sitting US senator to bringing cases against gang members who were ultimately convicted of murdering New York City police officers. In recent years, Smith has prosecuted war crimes at The Hague. His career in multiple parts of the Justice Department, as well as in international courts, has allowed him to keep a relatively low-profile in the oftentimes brassy legal industry.
As a prosecutor in Brooklyn, New York, one of Smith's biggest and most high-profile cases was prosecuting gang member Ronell Wilson for the murder of two New York City police department detectives during an undercover gun operation in Staten Island.
Wilson was convicted and sentenced to death, the first death penalty case in New York at the time in 50 years, though a judge later found he was ineligible for the death penalty.
Moe Fodeman, who worked with Smith at EDNY, called him "one of the best trial lawyers I have ever seen."
Beginning in 2008, Smith worked for the International Criminal Court and oversaw war crimes investigations under the Office of the Prosecutor for two years.
In 2010, he became chief of the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department, where he oversaw litigation of public corruption cases. Lanny Breuer, the former assistant attorney general for the DOJ's Criminal Division who recruited Smith, said his onetime employee was "a terrific prosecutor" with a "real sense of fairness."
"If you are going to have a special counsel, in my view, and you want someone who is going to be fearless, but fair, and not going to be intimidated and not overly bureaucratic, that's Jack -- he is all of these things.”
"Smith brings cases quickly. ... He doesn't sit on cases. He is a person of action," Breuer added.
After his stint at the Public Integrity Section, Smith was appointed first assistant US attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee in 2015.
Though he is not widely known in Washington, DC, legal circles, Smith is described as a consummate public servant.
About a decade ago, he hired waves of line prosecutors into the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department, supervising dozens over his years in charge there.
Brian Kidd, whom Smith hired at the unit, recalled how his boss walked him through every step of a complicated racketeering case against corrupt police officers.
"He was not going to tolerate a politically motivated prosecution," Kidd said. "And he has an incredible ability to motivate the people working with him and under him. He's incredibly supportive of his team."
Smith handled some of the most high-profile political corruption cases in recent memory -- to mixed outcomes.
He was the head of the public integrity unit when then-Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell was indicted in 2014, and was in meetings with the defense team and involved in decision-making leading up to the charges, according to a person familiar with the case.
McDonnell was initially convicted of receiving gifts for political favors, but then his conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court.
Smith was also at the helm of the unit when the DOJ failed to convict at trial former Senator and vice presidential candidate John Edwards.
A Republican source familiar with Smith's oversight of the investigation into former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay commended Smith's non-biased approach, saying that he ultimately made a "just" decision to conclude the investigation without alleging DeLay committed any crime.
In recent years while working at The Hague, he has not lived in the United States. He's no longer on the US Triathlon team but is still a competitive biker.
Smith took over as acting US Attorney when David Rivera departed in early 2017 before leaving the Justice Department later that year and becoming vice president of litigation for the Hospital Corporation of America. In 2018, he became chief prosecutor for the special court in The Hague, where he investigated war crimes in Kosovo.
"Throughout his career, Jack Smith has built a reputation as an impartial and determined prosecutor, who leads teams with energy and focus to follow the facts wherever they lead," Garland said during the announcement on Friday. "Mr. Smith is the right choice to complete these matters in an even-handed and urgent manner."
Sounds pretty fair to me.
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