Former special counsel Jack Smith, who targeted President Donald Trump and his allies, reportedly claimed in April the current U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has been “corrupted” by Trump and those loyal to him.
Smith made his remarks during a private event at the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC, with 300 people in attendance, the New York Times reported Wednesday, saying it had obtained video footage of his speech.
The newspaper said Smith “accused the Justice Department of having been ‘corrupted’ by Trump loyalists he claimed were demolishing its credibility and seeking to undermine the rule of law.”
“We have a Department of Justice today that targets people for criminal prosecution simply because the president doesn’t like them,” he reportedly said, while also claiming the department was failing to investigate cases due to fear of uncovering facts that were “inconvenient narratives” the president did not like.
The report continued:
Mr. Smith told the audience, which included former Justice Department officials, that he remained optimistic that the institution could be recommitted to its nonpartisan mission, even though it had “been corrupted over the last year” by Trump appointees he said were more eager to impress their boss than follow laws, rules and norms.
On April 21 the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on “Arctic Frost,” which was Smith’s investigation under former President Joe Biden (D) that went after Trump and his allies, Breitbart News reported on April 21, detailing the probe:
“Arctic Frost” was a wide-ranging investigation into then-candidate Trump, members of his administration, campaign team, and even Republican members of Congress ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
FBI Director Kash Patel revealed last year that Smith had subpoenaed phone records of sitting Republican members of the House and Senate, and anti-Trump Judge James Boasberg ordered AT&T not to reveal to congressmembers that their data had been accessed by prosecutors.
Indeed, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel said in October 2025 that his officials uncovered proof that phone records of lawmakers were “seized for political purposes.”
“That abuse of power ends now. Under my leadership, the FBI will deliver truth and accountability, and never again be weaponized against the American people,” he wrote in a social media post:
The following month, John Lauro, who was Trump’s counsel in Smith’s case regarding the protests at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, said FBI files relating to “Arctic Frost” showed the investigation was “simply a DOJ takedown of a political movement,” per Breitbart News.
Breitbart News’s Jasmyn Jordan reported in December:
Former Special Counsel Jack Smith told members of Congress in a private interview Wednesday that his team gathered sufficient evidence to support criminal charges against Donald Trump in connection with efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the retention of classified documents, even though both cases were later dropped following Trump’s return to the presidency.
“The Judiciary Committee,” Jordan’s article continued, “…subpoenaed Smith for testimony and documents as part of a Republican-led investigation into what GOP lawmakers describe as the politicized use of federal law enforcement under the Biden administration.”
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