Republicans are raising questions about the impartiality of Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee the probe into former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents and refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election.
GOP lawmakers note that Smith played a role in the IRS’ targeting of conservative nonprofits during the Obama era and point to the work and political donations of his spouse.
“Joe Biden’s DOJ’s special counsel Jack Smith is compromised,” said Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. “The corrupt weaponization and politicization of Biden’s DOJ must be stopped.”
Smith began his career as a prosecutor in 1994 as an assistant district attorney in New York. In 1999, he joined the Justice Department as an assistant U.S. attorney, where prosecuted police and political corruption.
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GOP lawmakers say Jack Smith played a role in the IRS’ targeting of conservative nonprofits during the Obama era and point to the work and political donations of his spouse.
(Justice Department)
Smith left the DOJ in 2008 to work for the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands, but he returned in 2010 as the lead of the department’s public integrity section. In the role, Smith was charged with overseeing the federal government’s efforts to combat corruption.
Republicans say it was in that position that Smith became involved in the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups. At the time, the Supreme Court had just overturned federal prohibitions on political spending by corporations, labor unions and nonprofits.
Democrats and progressives worried that decision effectively legalized influence peddling and pushed the Obama administration to take action. According to a 2013 report by the U.S. Treasury’s inspector general, the IRS unfairly scrutinized and delayed applications for tax-exempt status by hundreds of conservative nonprofits.
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A 2014 investigation into the scandal by the House Judiciary Committee purported to expose Smith’s involvement. A witness who served in the DOJ at the time told the Judiciary Committee that Smith had met with then-IRS head Lois Lerner in 2010.
The witness said the conversation detailed “how the IRS could assist in the criminal enforcement of campaign-finance laws against politically…
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