The Daily Fuckup

The Office of Special Counsel confirmed on Aug. 2, 2025, that it is investigating Jack Smith, the former Justice Department special counsel who led criminal cases against Donald Trump, for possible violations of the Hatch Act. The review became public after Sen. Tom Cotton pressed the watchdog to examine whether Smith’s work amounted to prohibited political activity. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/f32b39962d7aee1cb87f71ea9fde13f5?utm_source=openai))

That detail matters because the office doing the investigating is not the same office Smith once held. Smith was a Justice Department special counsel, appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022. The Office of Special Counsel is an independent agency that handles whistleblower matters and Hatch Act enforcement in the executive branch. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/815b6ff3a19130933a92fd922b52df5a?utm_source=openai))

The timing alone makes the case politically combustible. Smith spent more than two years as the prosecutor overseeing investigations tied to Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents. Now the watchdog that enforces restrictions on federal political activity is examining whether Smith’s conduct crossed a line. The agency has not said publicly that it reached any conclusion, only that the inquiry is underway. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/f32b39962d7aee1cb87f71ea9fde13f5?utm_source=openai))

Cotton’s push gave the episode its public trigger, but the legal question is narrower than the surrounding politics. The Hatch Act bars certain partisan activity by federal employees. Whether Smith’s investigative decisions fit that law is a separate question from whether Trump and his allies view the probe as overdue payback. The facts support the existence of the investigation; they do not, on their own, prove what it will find. ([osc.gov](https://osc.gov/Services/Pages/HatchAct-AdvisoryAction.aspx?utm_source=openai))

What is clear is that the investigation places a former special counsel under review by the same kind of government watchdog he once operated alongside from a different corner of the legal system. That overlap gives the case an obvious political charge. It also means the outcome could matter well beyond Smith himself, since any finding would be read through the larger fight over Trump, the prosecutions that dogged him, and the federal officials who carried them out. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/f32b39962d7aee1cb87f71ea9fde13f5?utm_source=openai))