Jack Smith speaks out as 'cascading effect' of Trump's DOJ decimation sets in

Author: Rawstory

Source: Rawstory

2026/07/03 05:56

7 min read

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Former special counsel Jack Smith outlined his fears and beliefs about the direction of the country in a far-reaching interview with MS NOW's Nicolle Wallace, exclusively aired Thursday on "Deadline: White House."

Smith, who prosecuted the two federal cases against President Donald Trump, told Wallace that it is important this 4th of July "to celebrate the public servants ... the people I spent my career working shoulder to shoulder with."

Jack Smith speaks out as 'cascading effect' of Trump's DOJ decimation sets in

"I loved being a prosecutor, and part of it was I loved being around these sort of people, and it angers me to see them victimized, to see them demonized for doing their jobs," said Smith, adding that it is critical to "stand up for them and let them know that there are a lot of people out there who back them and who are with them" as the Trump administration publicly attacks them and fires them for political reasons.

"There are a lot of good career prosecutors who right now are working under incredibly difficult circumstances, and they're still trying to do the right thing," said Smith. These prosecutors, he said, "are not self-promoters" and will not "crow about their achievements" on TV — and "We need to hold them up and celebrate them because they're part of what makes this country great."

Smith also had a warning about the breakdown of trust in federal courts against Justice Department prosecutors, as judges come to realize the political appointees under Trump cannot be assumed to tell the truth in major cases.

"If you go to court and the judges don't trust you, you can't do the basic things that you need to do to represent the American people in court," said Smith. "And we have seen judges across the country say they can't trust prosecutors anymore. And that has such a cascading effect on any sort of case."

Had that ever happened under a case Smith was prosecuting, he added, "one opinion like that in my career would have been seismic. People would not know what to do ..., and that's happening every day."

"And so regardless of what you think politically, they're just not effective at doing their job anymore," Smith lamented. "They've jettisoned expertise. And so we have a situation where we've got rid of people who know how to protect our national security."

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A legal expert shared a sobering warning on Thursday about President Donald Trump's continued efforts to dismantle birthright citizenship after the Supreme Court rebuffed his latest attempt.

Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, told Michael Popok, a lawyer and host of "The Intersection" podcast, on a recent episode that the Trump administration's birthright citizenship case was "just the tip of the spear." Last year, the administration signed an executive order stripping birthright citizenship from people who are born in the country but whose parents are here illegally. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Wednesday that the executive order was unconstitutional.

Wofsy warned during the interview that the Supreme Court's decision is not the end of the road for the Trump administration's efforts.

"What cases like the Birthright decision show is that we can keep fighting and we can win these fights," Wofsy said. "There are battles so fundamental and central to who we are as a country that we can overcome."

"I hope that gives some hope to those who may be feeling a little hopeless in this moment, but I also don't want to at all undercut that this is an incredibly frightening and demoralizing time for so many people in our communities," he continued.

"This is an example of our allies, our communities, the American people, who stood up and said no to this idea of rewriting a fundamental constitutional guarantee, and we held the line in this case," he added. "It's an example of why we have to keep fighting, but it is by far not the end of the fight."

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Former special counsel Jack Smith has been a constant target of fury and legal threats by President Donald Trump, dating back to even before the election, when the famed prosecutor was helming a pair of federal criminal cases against him.

But Smith doesn't dwell much on the possibility that Trump's Justice Department will fabricate some charges against him, he told MS NOW's Nicolle Wallace in an exclusive interview on Thursday. There's something he worries a lot more about.

"Do you think that this is a department that you could send someone to go work in, and they could be asked to indict you?" asked Wallace.

Smith agreed "that could happen" — however, he continued, "in the Justice Department, even as we sit here right now, there are lots of people doing good work prosecuting violent crime, protecting their communities, doing the everyday work of being a prosecutor. And yes, it could happen. That could happen, and that would be unfortunate. And then you might have to step down." Nonetheless, he added, "I don't want to see people run from public service because of that possibility."

"Do you expect to be indicted?" Wallace followed up, noting that Trump "said he would indict you."

Smith replied, "I'll tell you, Nicolle, I honestly do not spend a lot of time thinking about the things he says about me and his threats about me."

Instead of that, he continued, "I'm really focused on the people who I worked with, looking out for them. I'm really focused on how the Justice Department is going to be better going forward, things like that."

What Smith worries about more, he made clear, is the future of the people he worked with who helped him do his job.

Ultimately, Smith said, "I had an all-star team ... the agents on my case, if I were to walk you through all the awards they've won throughout generations of administrations, we would be here all night. These were superstars. I'm much more concerned that those people get to serve in the department, get to serve in the bureau again someday."

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A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration's legal strategy for detaining longtime undocumented residents without bond hearings is "a complete fantasy."

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, 2-1, the release of three men who had been locked up without any hearing to contest their detention.

The three — Ignacio Sosnava Rodriguez, Alejandro Villegas Angel and Miguel Angel Gomez Alvarado — had lived in the United States for 22, 15 and 14 years, respectively, according to the Texas Tribune.

They are fathers of U.S. citizen children with no criminal records, each stopped in a routine Texas traffic stop before being transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

For 29 years, the government allowed people in their situation to seek bond hearings. In 2025, the Department of Homeland Security reversed that policy, treating them as subject to mandatory detention with no bond and no hearing.

Immigrants have filed 57,657 habeas corpus petitions — legal challenges to their detention — since January 2025, more than in the past three administrations combined, ProPublica found as of publication. The government has called it a "tsunami."

"The answer to those difficulties cannot include ignoring the Constitution," Circuit Judge Leslie Southwick wrote in the ruling.

The administration's core argument rested on a Supreme Court case involving a man caught just 25 yards inside the border — and people who crossed decades ago and built lives here.

"It is a complete fantasy," Southwick wrote, rejecting that equivalence.

The court also found the government had selectively quoted that same Supreme Court case, omitting language that "changes the meaning of the selected" passage.

Circuit Judge James Graves concurred but called for even faster hearings — within 30 days, not 90. He wrote of "an appalling lack of humanity shown to our fellow human beings," noting the men had "started families, raised children, and contributed to their communities."

Circuit Judge Cory Wilson dissented, warning the ruling "deputizes every district court" to remake immigration law and would invite "even more chaos" into already overwhelmed dockets.

The ruling gives the government 90 days to justify each detention or release the detainee.

The Supreme Court has already agreed to hear a related detention case, Genalo v. Black, which could unsettle Thursday's decision.

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