Florida – The Florida classified documents case once stood as one of the most serious legal threats facing Donald Trump as he fought his way through the 2024 presidential campaign.
At the center of it was former special counsel Jack Smith, who accused Trump of unlawfully keeping classified national defense records after leaving the White House and obstructing government efforts to recover them.
The case, filed in Florida, carried enormous political weight because it placed Trump’s conduct after his first presidency directly under federal criminal scrutiny while he was asking voters to return him to power.
But the case never reached trial. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, dismissed it after finding that Smith had been unlawfully appointed as special counsel. Smith’s office was appealing that ruling when Trump won the 2024 election.
Weeks later, with Trump preparing to assume office again, Smith moved to dismiss both federal cases against him, citing the Justice Department’s long-standing policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
What had once been viewed by critics and supporters alike as a case capable of reshaping the election season came to an abrupt end before a jury ever heard it.
Now Smith, no longer leading the federal investigations against Trump, has stepped back into the political and legal storm with a sharp private-event rebuke of the Justice Department under Trump’s second administration.
Speaking at a private dinner in Washington, D.C. recently, Smith accused the department of being “corrupted” and of turning its power against people disliked by the president, according to remarks reported by the New York Times and later covered by Fox News.
“We have a Department of Justice today that targets people for criminal prosecution simply because the president doesn’t like them,” Smith said.
The comment landed with force because it mirrors the same charge Republicans have made against Smith for years. Trump and his allies have long argued that Smith’s two federal cases were political weapons aimed at blocking Trump’s return to the White House.
Smith, in turn, is now accusing Trump’s Justice Department of doing exactly what its leaders say they have stopped.
Smith’s remarks focused on the department’s handling of cases involving some of Trump’s most prominent political opponents, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Both have been frequent targets of Trump’s public anger. A federal judge previously dismissed criminal cases against Comey and James after ruling that the prosecutor who brought the charges was unlawfully appointed, though the dismissals were without prejudice.
The Justice Department pushed back hard. A DOJ spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the department expected “nothing less from Jack Smith whose sole mission was to politically prosecute a former president in an attempt to stop him from assuming office again.”
“This DOJ has ended the weaponization perpetrated by the Biden Administration and will continue to ensure no one is above the law,” the spokesperson said.
The White House also lashed out.
Spokeswoman Abigail Jackson called Smith a “lying hack” and accused him of pursuing Trump “to try and benefit his Democrat cronies.” She said Smith had been hired for “a witch hunt” and argued that it was “laughable” for him to criticize the current administration while it was, in her words, restoring integrity to the Justice Department.
Trump himself has repeatedly attacked Smith in personal terms. He has called him a corrupt “thug,” said he belonged in jail, and in January described him on Truth Social as a “deranged animal” who should lose his law license. Trump also said he hoped the Justice Department was investigating Smith and witnesses connected to the cases against him, calling the entire matter a “Democrat SCAM.”
Smith’s private remarks suggested that he sees the danger differently. He said the department had “been corrupted” over the past year, but added that he believed it would “ultimately come through this better.” He also accused the DOJ of ignoring cases that could reveal “inconvenient” facts running against narratives Trump wanted to promote.
Even in criticism, Smith made room for a limited note of praise.
According to the reporting, he said the Justice Department had become more vocal than it was under President Joe Biden, pointing to a more aggressive public posture from current department leadership.
Still, the larger message was unmistakable.
Smith, once the prosecutor pursuing Trump, is now warning that the institution he served has become a battlefield. Trump’s side says Smith was the weaponizer. Smith says the weapon is now in Trump’s hands. The clash that once played out in courtrooms has moved into speeches, statements and political memory, with the Justice Department itself caught at the center.
