General Discussion

Smith spoke about the rule of law being under attack in a way that he hasn’t seen in his lifetime, and that he’s saddened by the firing of selfless public servants, the government using its vast powers to target citizens for exercising their constitutional rights, and the loss of credibility with the courts and the people

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“In a society where the rule of law is eroding, you can have a situation where if you’re a Latino citizen… you can be stopped, detained, your liberty taken because of the color of your skin. Or maybe because you were speaking Spanish… whereas we all know that if you were white, that would never happen.”

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Smith talked about how it’s vital that career prosecutors follow the facts and the law despite both criticism and praise. “You do the right thing. You do it the right way. And you do it for the right reasons.” He points out that while media pundits and online social media trolls are “noise” that a good prosecutor knows how to tune out, people who demand a specific outcome are also to be ignored. A conscientious prosecutor does what is right by following the facts and the law regardless of external pressure.

But, he says, the current leadership at the Department of Justice has abandoned these principles in favor of reaching desired outcomes dictated by the president. Rather than relying on the process, they ignore norms and values by focusing on those outcomes no matter the cost to the credibility of the institution, and no matter whether the outcomes are legal or just.

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