Smith special counsel investigation
Investigation into former U.S. president Donald Trump / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An ongoing special counsel investigation was opened by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on November 18, 2022, to continue two investigations initiated by the Justice Department (DOJ) regarding former U.S. President Donald Trump. Garland appointed Jack Smith, a longtime federal prosecutor, to lead the independent investigations. Smith was tasked with investigating Trump's role in the January 6 United States Capitol attack and Trump's mishandling of government records, including classified documents.
This article is written like a story. (January 2024) |
Smith moved quickly to advance his investigations, assembling a team of at least twenty DOJ prosecutors, and called witnesses for grand jury testimony, issued subpoenas to election officials in multiple states and asked a federal judge to hold Trump in contempt for refusing to comply with a subpoena.
On June 8, 2023, a grand jury in the Southern Florida U.S. District Court indicted Trump on 37 felony counts,[1] including charges of willful retention of national security material, obstruction of justice and conspiracy, relating to his removal and retention of presidential materials from the White House after his presidency ended.[2] Thirty-one of the counts fell under the Espionage Act.[3] Trump pleaded not guilty.[4][5][6] The judge set trial for May 20, 2024.[7]
On August 1, 2023, a grand jury for the District of Columbia U.S. District Court issued a four-count indictment of Trump for conspiracy to defraud the United States under Title 18 of the United States Code, obstructing an official proceeding and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding under the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, and conspiracy against rights under the Enforcement Act of 1870 for his conduct following the 2020 presidential election through the January 6 Capitol attack.[8][9][10] Trump pleaded not guilty.[11] The judge set trial for March 4, 2024.[12]