Jack Smith remains special counsel, wasn't fired as of Nov. 6 | Fact check
Joedy McCrearyThe claim: Jack Smith was fired as special counsel as of Nov. 6
A Nov. 6 Threads post (direct link, archive link) shows a TikTok video of a Fox News broadcast about the special counsel in charge of prosecuting President-elect Donald Trump.
“Jack Smith Has Been Fired,” text in the video reads in part.
The Threads post received more than 400 likes in five days. A similar version was shared thousands of times on TikTok.
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Our rating: False
Smith was not fired at the time the post was shared, a Department of Justice spokesperson said.
No change to Smith's title, job status
Justice Department spokesperson Peter Carr told USA TODAY two days after the post was made that Smith remained special counsel.
In fact, that day he also took a significant legal action in Trump's election interference case. He filed a motion Nov. 8 to ask District Judge Tanya Chutkan to pause action in the case and to request roughly a month for the department to figure out what to do next. Had he previously been fired, that could not have happened.
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Trump faces charges in Washington that he tried to steal the 2020 presidential election and obstruct Congress from counting Electoral College votes on Jan. 6, 2021. The Supreme Court ruled in July that Trump has presidential immunity for his “official” acts. The issue before Chutkan is how that ruling applies to this case.
In his filing, Smith asked the judge to halt the remaining deadlines in the case’s pretrial schedule “to afford the government time to assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course going forward.” He goes on to say the department either will file a status report or will tell Chutkan how it plans to proceed by Dec. 2.
Smith, appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 to lead the federal cases against Trump, is discussing ways to wind down the two cases against him before Trump's return to the White House, USA TODAY reported Nov. 6. Pursuing charges against Trump would violate longstanding department policy against prosecuting a sitting president. The Fox News broadcast in the social media video references that policy and claims Smith “will be gone from his post as special counsel” – not that he already had been dismissed.
Trump has often claimed without evidence that the cases against him were politically motivated. He has suggested he could terminate Smith or pardon himself, telling radio host Hugh Hewitt on Oct. 24 that if he were to win the White House, he would “fire him within two seconds."
Separately, Trump was indicted on charges he unlawfully retained classified documents after leaving the White House. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the charges by ruling Smith was appointed illegitimately. Smith has appealed the decision to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
USA TODAY previously debunked false claims that a post implied a judge ended Smith’s prosecution of Trump in March and that the president-elect called the prosecutor a “loony leftist” in a social media post in October.
USA TODAY reached out to the social media users who shared the claim but did not immediately receive responses.
Our fact-check sources:
- Peter Carr, Nov. 8, Email exchange with USA TODAY
- United States v. Trump (Court Listener), Nov. 8, Motion to Vacate – Document #278
- USA TODAY, Nov. 8, Judge halts action in Trump election case as prosecutors look to drop charges
- NBC News, Nov. 8, Judge hits pause on Trump's election interference criminal case
- Department of Justice, accessed Nov. 8, Special Counsel Jack Smith
- Department of Justice, accessed Nov. 8, Press Releases
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