The Department of Justice discovered a cache of documents tied to former Special Counsel Jack Smith tucked inside a room that had apparently been forgotten, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche disclosed in a recent interview. The revelation raises fresh questions about how Smith's office handled sensitive materials and whether a full accounting of the special counsel's work product has yet to reach the officials now responsible for reviewing it.
Blanche, who served as one of President Trump's defense attorneys before being confirmed as the second-ranking official at DOJ, told Fox News that the documents were found in a room within the Justice Department that personnel had not been regularly accessing. The find came as DOJ leadership under the new administration has been working to review the full scope of Smith's operations, which included two federal prosecutions of Trump, one related to the 2020 election and one involving classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago.
Blanche did not publicly detail every item recovered from the space. He characterized the discovery as a "cache" of documents connected to Smith's work. The materials had not been turned over through normal channels before Smith resigned from the department ahead of Trump's inauguration in January 2025.
Smith filed a final report before departing. Only the volume covering the election-related prosecution was released publicly; the volume addressing the classified documents case was withheld at the time, in part because of ongoing related proceedings against co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira. Those charges were later dropped.
The existence of documents outside the formal record-transfer process suggests that the special counsel's office may not have left behind a clean paper trail. Blanche framed the discovery as part of a broader pattern he sees in how Smith's team conducted its affairs.
The deputy attorney general has been publicly critical of Smith's prosecutions since long before he joined DOJ. As Trump's private lawyer, Blanche fought both federal cases in court and argued that Smith's appointment was constitutionally defective. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon agreed in the classified documents case, dismissing the indictment on the ground that Smith's appointment violated the Appointments Clause. Smith's team appealed before ultimately withdrawing the case in line with longstanding DOJ policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
Now inside the department, Blanche has signaled that reviewing Smith's conduct is a priority. He told Fox News that the hidden document cache reinforced concerns about transparency and record-keeping within the special counsel's office.
Blanche stopped short of alleging criminal misconduct tied to the documents. He did not say whether the materials contained classified information or whether their storage in the overlooked room violated any federal records statutes. Those questions remain open.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has tasked multiple components of the department with examining the conduct of Smith's team. That review sits alongside a separate effort to investigate alleged misconduct by members of the special counsel's staff, an initiative that has drawn sharp objections from Democrats who call it politically motivated retaliation.
Bondi and Blanche have both said publicly that the review is about accountability, not politics. They point to what they describe as procedural irregularities in Smith's prosecutions, including the speed at which the cases were brought, the handling of evidence at Mar-a-Lago, and disputes over the classification status of certain records.
The forgotten-room discovery feeds directly into that narrative. If Smith's office left behind materials that were not properly catalogued or transferred, it could bolster the administration's argument that the special counsel operated with insufficient oversight.
Democrats have pushed back hard against any DOJ effort to re-examine Smith's work. Congressional allies of the former special counsel argue that Smith followed established procedures and that his prosecutions were grounded in evidence. They view the current review as an attempt to discredit legitimate law enforcement activity.
Republicans see it differently. To them, the discovery of documents in a room no one was checking is exactly the kind of detail that justifies a thorough post-mortem. Senate Judiciary Committee members aligned with the administration have called for full disclosure of all materials Smith's office produced, including internal communications and memoranda that shaped charging decisions.
Blanche's dual role adds a layer of complexity. As Trump's former defense attorney, he has personal knowledge of the cases that few DOJ officials could match. Critics say that creates an inherent conflict of interest. Supporters counter that his firsthand experience makes him uniquely qualified to identify where the process broke down.
Several questions remain unresolved. Authorities have not publicly confirmed how long the documents sat in the room undiscovered. Investigators have not said whether anyone on Smith's team knew the materials were there or whether the room was simply overlooked during the office's wind-down.
DOJ officials also have not disclosed whether the cache duplicates records already in the department's possession or whether it contains materials not found elsewhere. That distinction matters. Duplicate records would suggest sloppy housekeeping. Unique documents could point to a more serious gap in the official record.
No public results have been released about any forensic review of the materials. Blanche indicated the review is ongoing and that more information may become available as the department completes its assessment.
Federal regulations impose specific obligations on special counsel offices when they close. Under 28 C.F.R. Part 600, the special counsel must provide a confidential report to the attorney general explaining prosecution and declination decisions. All files generated during the investigation become DOJ records subject to the department's standard retention policies.
If documents were left in a room outside normal records management, that could raise questions about compliance with those regulations. It does not, on its own, prove intentional concealment. Government offices routinely accumulate paper in spaces that fall outside regular workflow, especially during rapid transitions. But the optics are unfavorable for Smith's team, and the substance could prove worse depending on what the documents contain.
Blanche clearly views the discovery as meaningful. His decision to discuss it publicly on Fox News signals that the administration intends to use it as part of its broader case that Smith's operation lacked the guardrails that should accompany any prosecution of this magnitude.
When a prosecutor's leftover paperwork turns up in a room nobody remembered to check, the question stops being about filing cabinets. It becomes about whether anyone was minding the store.
