Former special counsel Jack Smith outlined his fears and beliefs about the direction of the country in a far-reaching interview with MS NOW's Nicolle Wallace, exclusively aired Thursday on "Deadline: White House."
Smith, who prosecuted the two federal cases against President Donald Trump, told Wallace that it is important this 4th of July "to celebrate the public servants ... the people I spent my career working shoulder to shoulder with."
"I loved being a prosecutor, and part of it was I loved being around these sort of people, and it angers me to see them victimized, to see them demonized for doing their jobs," said Smith, adding that it is critical to "stand up for them and let them know that there are a lot of people out there who back them and who are with them" as the Trump administration publicly attacks them and fires them for political reasons.
"There are a lot of good career prosecutors who right now are working under incredibly difficult circumstances, and they're still trying to do the right thing," said Smith. These prosecutors, he said, "are not self-promoters" and will not "crow about their achievements" on TV — and "We need to hold them up and celebrate them because they're part of what makes this country great."
Smith also had a warning about the breakdown of trust in federal courts against Justice Department prosecutors, as judges come to realize the political appointees under Trump cannot be assumed to tell the truth in major cases.
"If you go to court and the judges don't trust you, you can't do the basic things that you need to do to represent the American people in court," said Smith. "And we have seen judges across the country say they can't trust prosecutors anymore. And that has such a cascading effect on any sort of case."
Had that ever happened under a case Smith was prosecuting, he added, "one opinion like that in my career would have been seismic. People would not know what to do ..., and that's happening every day."
"And so regardless of what you think politically, they're just not effective at doing their job anymore," Smith lamented. "They've jettisoned expertise. And so we have a situation where we've got rid of people who know how to protect our national security."