Last autumn, a largely unknown former prosecutor with a beard and a brisk gait flew unnoticed to Washington from The Hague after being summoned to a secret meeting by attorney general Merrick B. Garland.

Jack Smith’s job interview would remain unknown to all but a handful of department officials until hours before he was appointed special counsel to oversee two investigations into former President Donald J. Trump in mid-November.

Over the past few months of frenetic activity, Smith’s anonymity has vanished. He has now indicted Trump twice: in June, for risking national security secrets by taking classified documents from the White House, and on Tuesday, in connection with
his widespread efforts to subvert democracy and overturn an election in 2020, he clearly lost.

And he has taken these actions with remarkable speed, aggressiveness and apparent indifference to collateral political consequences.

Smith told media persons that the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, was “fuelled by lies” — Trump’s lies — during brief remarks on Tuesday, after a jury in Washington indicted the former President on four counts.