New Trump Special Counsel Impartial and Tough, Ex-Colleagues Say

The special counsel investigating former president Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents and the Jan. 6 insurrection honed his investigative and trial skills over 30 years of fighting cases involving corruption, crimes and police brutality.

John L. “Jack” Smith was part of a team that won the first death penalty case in a New York federal court in a half century, then went on to the International Criminal Court, where he prosecuted genocide and war crimes. As a federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, New York, he handled some of the city’s most violent cases, former colleagues say.

Smith’s next ...