The former special counsel is being investigated for possible violations of the Hatch Act, which restricts partisan activities by federal employees. A G.O.P. senator had requested an inquiry over Mr. Smith’s prosecution of Donald Trump.
Jack Smith at a news conference in 2023, announcing the indictment of Donald J. Trump. Mr. Trump’s allies have argued that Mr. Smith tried to influence the 2024 election.
A complaint concerning a top Justice Department official, Emil Bove III, went unnoticed for more than two months, raising worries that an internal watchdog has gone dormant.
As a top Justice Department official, Emil Bove III fired dozens of lawyers and agents without any stated cause, in seeming violation of civil service protections and longtime department practice.
The acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, Bill Essayli, left, and Vice President JD Vance during a news conference last month in Los Angeles.
At the Justice Department, Emil Bove III played an outsize role in the Trump administration’s aggressive effort to take control of the agency it argues has been “weaponized” against President Trump and other conservatives.
A similar approach in New Jersey has led to cancellations of court proceedings, as judges question whether the president’s designee for U.S. Attorney has any authority.
The decision comes in the face of a looming Wednesday deadline, when the temporary appointments of the two interim appointees in Los Angeles and Las Vegas were set to expire.
The senator’s treatment of whistle-blowers detailing allegations against Emil Bove, the Trump loyalist and appeals court pick, has had a chilling effect, critics say.
Senator Charles E. Grassley accused Democrats of trying “to weaponize my respect for whistle-blowers and the whole whistle-blowing process against me and, in return, against” Emil Bove.
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