“This is going to cost us”: Smith blasts Trump attacks on public servants in rare interview

Jack Smith, the former special counsel who led investigations into President Donald Trump, spoke out against the administration in a rare interview.

Smith’s investigations culminated in two Trump indictments surrounding his handling of classified documents and his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Smith left the Department of Justice in January, shortly before the start of Trump’s second term.

Sitting for an interview with visiting professor Andrew Weissman at University College London Faculty of Laws, Smith said that the Trump administration is “attacking” public servants, adding that he was “very concerned” by recent efforts to “demonize” the federal workforce. 

“I think the attacks on public servants… have a cost for our country that is incalculable, and I think that we — it’s hard to communicate to folks how much that is going to cost us,” Smith said. “These are team players who don’t want anything but to do good in the world. They’re not interested in politics. These are the very kinds of people we should be celebrating.”

The comments come in the midst of the Trump administration targeting political opponents inside and outside of federal agencies. Since January, federal agents, supervisors, and lawyers have been subjected to purges and firings.

In the last several weeks, a loyalist-led Department of Justice has brought cases against several prominent Trump foes. New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted on charges of bank fraud and lying to a financial institution after personal pressure from Trump. Former FBI Director James Comey also faces Trump-backed charges of lying to Congress. While the interview took place before the James indictment, Smith criticized the Comey case as a blatantly political prosecution.

“The apolitical prosecutors who analyzed this said there wasn’t a case, and so they brought somebody in who had never been a criminal prosecutor on days’ notice to secure an indictment a day before the statute of limitations ended,” he shared.

In a statement to NBC, the White House pushed back against Smith’s warnings.

“The Trump Administration will continue to deliver the truth to the American people while restoring integrity and accountability to our justice system,” the statement read.

The interview is only the second public appearance Smith has made since leaving office. The first was in September at George Mason University. Smith warned his audience that the rule of law in the United States was “under attack.”