Teasing potential legal action against former President Joe Biden's special counsel Jack Smith, President Donald Trump echoed his "sleazebag" rebuke made exclusively Monday night on Newsmax's "Greg Kelly Reports."
"Deranged Jack Smith got caught with his hand in the cookie jar," Trump wrote Tuesday morning on Truth Social. "A real sleazebag!!!"
Trump's "sleazebag" moniker for the special prosecutor appointed by Biden to pursue Trump, his former administration officials, and 2020 election-challenge lawyers is not new, but his remarks to Newsmax on Monday night suggest accountability, if not criminal charges, will be coming.
"He was a sleazebag, Jack Smith," Trump told host Greg Kelly in an exclusive phone interview. "He was a bad guy, terrible guy, always went too far.
"He was a violent, horrible prosecutor, and he's paying the price."
Trump said Smith's aggressive approach has ruined the lives of countless people and accused him of weaponizing the justice system for political purposes.
"What he did to the lives of so many people. And he tried on me," Trump said.
"This guy was a bad guy. And, you know, the reason he lost is because he went too far."
The president suggested Smith's actions — including surveillance of GOP lawmakers' communications — backfired.
"When you go too far, sometimes you get away with it, but they didn't get away with it here," Trump said.
"Jack Smith was a sick person."
Trump's exclusive remarks came just hours after Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, revealed Biden's FBI targeted eight Republican senators as part of Smith's election-related investigation, calling it "worse than Watergate."
"This document shows the Biden FBI spied on eight of my Republican Senate colleagues," Grassley wrote on X, accusing the bureau of politicizing its investigative powers. "Biden FBI weaponization = worse than Watergate."
Grassley shared what he described as a bureau document showing FBI agents conducted toll record analysis — a form of communications metadata review — on several GOP lawmakers, including Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.
"The FBI under Joe Biden's watch exercised authority that it did not have," Blackburn wrote in a statement to Newsmax.
"The Biden administration raided Mar-a-Lago, indicted President Trump, and now we know they weaponized America's top law enforcement agency to spy on Republican U.S. senators who support President Trump.
"The FBI was rotten to the core under Joe Biden and [former Director] Chris Wray's leadership, and I will not let this stand. I appreciate Director [Kash] Patel and Deputy Director [Dan] Bongino for launching an investigation to hold those responsible for this corruption accountable to the highest extent."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.