By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
Former Special Counsel Jack Smith made a conspicuous appearance Saturday at a Maryland music festival featuring extensive criticism of President Donald Trump, wearing a “No Kings” shirt before receiving an onstage dedication from Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl.
Smith attended the “Power to the People” festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, where Bruce Springsteen, Foo Fighters, Tom Morello, Joan Baez and other performers appeared at an event combining live music with political activism. The festival was organized by Morello and promoted participation by activist organizations ahead of the November midterm elections.
Photographs from the event showed Smith wearing a black shirt reading, “Bruce Springsteen & E Street Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour No Kings.” Smith served as special counsel during the Biden administration and led two federal criminal investigations of Trump before leaving the Justice Department.
His appearance quickly drew attention because of both the overtly political nature of the festival and Smith’s previous insistence that his work as special counsel was conducted without partisan motivation.
Grohl acknowledged Smith from the stage before Foo Fighters performed one of the band’s best-known songs.
“This one goes out to my new friend Jack,” Grohl said before the band began “My Hero.” Contemporary reports and footage from the festival identified Smith as the person Grohl was addressing.
The festival itself featured repeated criticism of the Trump administration. Springsteen, one of Trump’s longtime celebrity critics, used his performance to condemn administration policies and immigration enforcement, while other performers and speakers incorporated political messages into their appearances. Activists at the event were also heard chanting “Free Palestine.”
The Associated Press described the gathering as an activist-oriented event centered on “peace, justice, community and voter turnout,” with a “Freedom Village” where political and advocacy organizations interacted with concertgoers. Springsteen headlined the festival, while Morello, Baez, Grohl and other musicians participated throughout the day.
Smith’s attendance came only days after a contentious Sept. 29 appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Republicans accused him of exceeding his authority and conducting politically motivated investigations of Trump and Republican figures. Smith rejected those allegations and said his prosecutorial decisions were based on evidence and Justice Department rules rather than politics.
Republican lawmakers have focused particularly on the breadth of an investigation known as Arctic Frost, which preceded and became part of Smith’s federal investigation into efforts surrounding the 2020 presidential election.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, disclosed records that he said showed investigators obtained at least 4,782 checks written by people who had made mostly small-dollar donations to Trump or Trump-aligned Republican organizations between September 2019 and August 2023. The checks contained information including donors’ names, addresses, bank routing and account numbers and signatures, according to the committee.
Smith acknowledged during the hearing that his office obtained financial information while conducting the criminal investigation but defended the use of subpoenas as part of legitimate investigative activity.
Grassley and other Republicans have argued that the scope of the records collection went far beyond what was necessary to investigate Trump and violated the privacy of Americans whose political donations brought their banking information into the investigation. Smith disputed the broader characterization that his operation targeted people because they were Republicans.
The Republican-led committee has also scrutinized Smith’s pursuit of telephone records associated with lawmakers and other information obtained during the investigation. Committee records released in 2026 showed that telecommunications companies received dozens of subpoenas, including requests involving current and former Republican members of Congress.
Democrats on the Judiciary Committee have defended Smith and argued that investigators were following evidence related to Trump’s efforts to challenge the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Ranking Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois said during the hearing that Smith’s investigation was legitimate and rejected Republican allegations that it represented politically motivated misconduct.
The hearing also produced disputes over Smith’s previous descriptions of what investigators obtained from lawmakers’ communications. Republican critics have accused him of providing inconsistent testimony about whether investigators received only telephone metadata or, in some instances, the contents of communications.
Claims circulating after the hearing that Smith committed perjury have not resulted in a criminal charge or judicial finding that he lied under oath. Smith and his defenders have distinguished between telephone toll records — information showing details such as who contacted whom and when — and other communications obtained through separate investigative processes. The Senate committee’s Democratic staff emphasized during questioning that Smith described toll records as metadata rather than the contents of calls or messages.
Republicans, however, have continued investigating broader records showing that communications involving members of Congress, journalists and other individuals were obtained during the federal investigation. Grassley’s office has said records disclosed to the committee show investigators collected communications involving journalists at numerous national media organizations as well as information connected to lawmakers.
Smith was appointed special counsel in November 2022 by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland. He ultimately brought two separate federal criminal cases against Trump.
One charged Trump over alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and events leading to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. The other accused Trump of illegally retaining classified national-security records after leaving the White House and obstructing efforts to recover them.
Trump pleaded not guilty and repeatedly characterized both prosecutions as politically motivated efforts to damage his campaign to return to the White House.
The 2020 election case was dismissed at Smith’s request after Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. Smith cited the Justice Department’s longstanding position that a sitting president cannot be criminally prosecuted, making Trump’s return to office decisive in ending the federal case. The dismissal was not based on a determination that the charges lacked merit.
The classified-documents case had previously been dismissed by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who ruled in July 2024 that Smith’s appointment violated the Constitution. Smith appealed that ruling, but following Trump’s election victory, the Justice Department abandoned its effort to continue prosecuting Trump as he prepared to return to office.
Throughout his tenure, Smith rejected Trump’s assertions that the investigations were politically directed. He repeated that position before the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying he would have pursued the same evidence regardless of the political party or position of the person involved.
Republican senators have remained unconvinced, pointing to the timing, reach and investigative tactics employed by Smith’s team. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, sharply criticized Smith during last week’s hearing, accusing him of weaponizing federal law enforcement against a political opponent. Smith rejected Cruz’s characterization.
Against that backdrop, Smith’s decision to attend Saturday’s anti-Trump-oriented festival wearing a “No Kings” shirt immediately attracted new criticism from conservatives who argue the appearance raises questions about the political views of the former prosecutor who pursued Trump.
Smith is no longer a Justice Department employee and, as a private citizen, is free to attend political events and express political views. His appearance Saturday does not by itself establish that his previous prosecutorial decisions were politically motivated.
The optics nevertheless drew attention because Smith spent years at the center of one of the country’s most politically consequential federal prosecutions and appeared at the Maryland festival only days after defending the independence of those investigations before Congress.
The crowd Saturday saw a markedly different side of the former special counsel: rather than sitting before senators defending subpoenas and prosecutorial decisions, Smith stood among concertgoers in a “No Kings” shirt as Grohl dedicated “My Hero” to his “new friend Jack.”
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