Jack Smith Criticizes DOJ for Politicization in April 2026 Speech

C. in April 2026. Smith said the DOJ targets people for criminal prosecution simply because the president doesn’t like them.

He also accused the DOJ of weaponizing its authority against President Donald Trump’s enemies. The New York Times reported on Jack Smith’s April 2026 speech this week. The event drew a few hundred people.

Smith’s remarks focused on the department’s decisions to investigate and prosecute some of Trump’s top political rivals. Smith brought indictments against Trump alleging he illegally attempted to overturn the 2020 election. He also brought an indictment against Trump alleging he retained classified national defense information.

Judge Aileen Cannon tossed out the classified documents case against Trump after ruling that Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed as special counsel. Jack Smith’s office was appealing Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling when Trump won the 2024 election. Smith moved to dismiss both federal cases against Trump weeks after Trump won the 2024 election.

He cited the Justice Department’s longstanding policy against prosecuting a sitting president. C. on Jan.

22, 2026. A longtime prosecutor, Smith previously prosecuted war crimes in the Hague and led the DOJ's Public Integrity Section during the Obama administration. A DOJ spokesperson stated that Jack Smith’s sole mission was to politically prosecute a former president in an attempt to stop him from assuming office again.

The spokesperson added that this DOJ has ended the weaponization perpetrated by the Biden Administration. President Donald Trump called Jack Smith a corrupt thug who belonged in jail. In January 2026, Donald Trump said on Truth Social that Jack Smith was a deranged animal who should lose his law license.

Trump said he hoped the DOJ was investigating Jack Smith including some of the crooked and corrupt witnesses that he was attempting to use in his case against me. Donald Trump stated that the whole thing was a Democrat SCAM and that a big price should be paid by them for what they have put our Country through.

Those remarks directly clash with Smith’s commentary at the private event, as both sides accuse the other of weaponization.

Jack Smith said the DOJ has been corrupted over the past year. He said he believed the department would come through this better. Smith accused the DOJ of turning a blind eye to cases that might reveal inconvenient facts that would contradict narratives the president would like to press.

"To erode the rule of law in this country you need to attack these people, and that is what we have seen since January 2025," Smith said. He praised the DOJ for being more vocal than it was under Biden while praising career prosecutors. Smith highlighted as a central component of the current DOJ’s strategy the punishment of those like the several Minnesota attorneys who resigned in protest over internal disputes with how to handle an investigation into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent killing Renee Good, a 37-year-old anti-ICE activist.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche replaced Pam Bondi a month ago. Blanche held a press conference on April 21, 2026. Fox News reported that Smith’s comments were not all negative according to the New York Times account of the speech.