CLOSE X
By Senior Crime and Courts Reporter
✓ Link copied to clipboard!

Jack Smith’s office has spent at least $50 million in its unsuccessful prosecution of Donald Trump, according to Newsweek calculations.

Newsweek has repeatedly sought further detail of spending in Smith’s office through a Freedom of Information Request and through communication with the federal government’s Freedom of Information ombudsman.

The Department of Justice replied last January that there are “unusual circumstances” to the request because Smith’s office is not officially part of the DOJ, and therefore the Department does not have to reply within Freedom of Information Act time limits.

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith as special on November 18, 2022 to investigate and prosecute Donald Trump’s federal cases. Garland did so to avoid the appearance that the Department of Justice or the Biden Administration were persecuting Donald Trump.

Smith would later indict Trump for alleged election fraud in attempting to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election, and he also indicted Trump for the alleged hoarding of classified documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges.

However, those indictments have not come to trial and Trump vowed to conservative radio host, Hugh Hewitt, on October 24 that he will fire Smith “within two seconds” of taking office.

Greg Germain, a law professor at Syracuse University in New York, told Newsweek that Smith will resign before allowing Trump to fire him.

Department of Justice financial disclosures show that between Smith’s appointment on November 18, 2022, and March 31, 2023, his office directly spent $5,428,579, which included employee salaries and benefits of $2,672,783; rent, communications and utilities of $456,808 and contractual services of $1,881,926.

Contractual services include $1,674,947 on litigation and investigative support; $143,493 for IT and computer services and $63,151 for transcripts.

In addition to this direct spending, the Department of Justice spent $3,818,818 supporting Smith’s office, including bodyguards for Smith.

This indirect spending includes “hours worked by agents and investigative support analysts, as well as the cost of protective details for the Special Counsel when warranted,” the Department of Justice disclosure states.

The direct and indirect spending for this period is therefore $9,247,397.

Smith’s direct spending jumped to $7,379,089 for the six months between April 1, 2023 and September 30, 2023.

This included salaries and benefits of $4,779,835; rent, communications and utilities of $730,662; travel expenses of $410,138 and contractual services of $1,235,113.

Indirect spending on his office by the Department of Justice rose to $7,277,783, almost as much as Smith’s direct spending.

That brings the total direct and indirect spending for this period to $14,656,872.

For the period October 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024, Smith’s office had direct expenditure of $6,630,206.

That included salaries and expenses of $4,122,862; travel costs of $255,908; rent, communications and utilities of $782,813 and contractual services of $1,440,657.

Indirect Department of Justice spending on Smith’s office for this period was $5,210,011.

The total direct and indirect expenditure for this period was $11,840,217.

That brings total direct and indirect expenditure from November 18, 2022 to March 31, 2024 to $35,744,486.

The Department of Justice has not yet released figures from April 1, 2024 and September 30, 2024, or the figures beyond that.

The average of the three reported periods is $11,914,828. If we add that for the period from April 1, 2024 to September 30, 2024 that brings a total of $47,659,314.

This figure excludes the expenditure from September 30 onward, which will push his office’s total expenditure well past $50 million and likely closer to $60 million by the time Trump takes office on January 20.

On January 4, 2024, Newsweek lodged a Freedom of Information request with the Justice Department, seeking greater detail on Smith’s spending for the six months ending March 31, 2023, including a breakdown of the figures for employment and benefits as well as travel expenses and where that travel expenditure was spent.

The following day, Newsweek also asked for a breakdown of the figures for contractual services and received an acknowledgment of the requests the same day from the Department of Justice’s Freedom of Information Office.

On January 10, the Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy replied, noting that there were “unusual circumstances” in the Newsweek‘s Freedom of Information request.

“The records you seek require a search in and/or consultation with another Office, and so your request falls within ‘unusual circumstances.’ Because of these unusual circumstances, we need to extend the time limit to respond to your request beyond the ten additional days provided by the statute,” it stated.

It also suggested we contact the federal government’s Freedom of Information Ombudsman, the Office of Government Information Services, “to inquire about the FOIA mediation services they offer.”

On February 23, 2024, the Office of Government Information Services contacted Newsweek and identified the Freedom of Information request as disputed.

It sought greater information on the request. Newsweek replied the same day, simplifying the request to a breakdown of employment, travel and contractual services figures, without any detail needed of where the travel took place.

Nearly nine months later, Newsweek is still waiting for a Department of Justice or Office of Government Information Services answer to its request.

Newsweek sought email comment from the Department of Justice and the Office of Government Information Services on Friday and Wednesday about the Freedom of Information request and, on the same days, from Smith’s office about the expenditure and his potential resignation.

Newsweek also sought comment from the Trump transition team.

Former federal prosecutor, Neama Rahmani, told Newsweek that Smith’s indictments have been a waste of money.

“Ultimately, Smith’s prosecutions were a waste of taxpayer money. He got nowhere near trial on either case, and the election fraud indictments didn’t reveal significantly more evidence than the January 6 Committee,” he said.

Rahmani, now president of the West Coast Trial Lawyers law firm in California, said that Smith “waited too long to charge both cases.”

He said Smith also “failed to anticipate that Trump would, through motions and appeals, delay the cases until after the election and win, so he could not be prosecuted.”

Los Angeles-based attorney, John Perlstein, told Newsweek that Smith’s expenditure “was a complete waste of resources.”

He said the evidence in the election fraud case was “vague at best to pursue prosecution to this degree.”

“Government resources should be allocated more effectively, and I say this from the standpoint of someone who is not a supporter of Mr. Trump. All of those cases never made any sense to me. And now that they will seemingly be going away, that money was wasted,” he said.

Update 11/13/24 13:42 p.m ET: This article was updated to reflect new requests on Wednesday for comment from the Department of Justice and from the Office of Government Information Services.

Request Reprint & Licensing
View Editorial & AI Guidelines