On July 2, 2026, former special counsel Jack Smith gave his first television interview since resigning from the Justice Department, telling MS NOW's Nicolle Wallace that he believes the country is living through an attack on the rule of law without precedent in his lifetime.
“I think we are facing an attack on the rule of law that is different in kind and scope to anything I've seen in my lifetime,” Smith said. He described watching career public servants be vilified for doing their jobs, particularly those who worked on investigations seen as adverse to Trump and his allies, and said they need to know the public stands behind them. Asked whether he was afraid to speak out, he answered that he would “not be intimidated.”
Smith, who brought two federal indictments against Trump before the 2024 election ended the cases, also said he is “very concerned” about the integrity of the coming election and argued that state attorneys general have a critical role in upholding the rule of law in their states ahead of the 2026 midterms. The interview is notable because Trump spent the prior year publicly attacking Smith, at one point calling him a “deranged” and “sick” figure, and because the administration has worked to keep Smith's own final report from public view (see Trump Calls Former Special Counsel Jack Smith a 'Sick Son of a B*tch' from the White House Press Room).