Newly released Justice Department records show that former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office set aside its own stricter purchasing standards to rush through a forensic video and audio software order in July 2023, just weeks before it indicted President Donald Trump over the 2020 election.
The documents, obtained by the Oversight Project through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, surfaced ahead of Smith’s scheduled testimony Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee about his investigations of Trump.
According to the records, Smith’s Litigation Support staff contacted Axon Investigate, part of Axon Enterprises, on June 26, 2023, seeking services for “converting all types of video and audio files including lots of proprietary types we receive.” What that proprietary material was has never been identified. The request came just weeks after Smith’s office indicted Trump on June 8, 2023, over the handling of classified documents.
Axon told Smith’s office it does not publish the cost of its licenses or software. The Justice Department has withheld all pricing information from the released records, citing Axon’s confidentiality, meaning the public still does not know what taxpayers paid. Fox News has estimated, based on DOJ reports, that Smith’s investigation of Trump likely cost taxpayers more than $50 million.
“We are in desperate need”
On July 12, 2023, Smith’s office Records Officer asked Axon to ship the software overnight, writing, “we are in desperate need of this software.” The next morning, Axon’s federal inside sales representative, Christina Zeman, replied that she would help place the order and looked “forward to working with you.”
Minutes later, Smith’s executive officer, Ariel McIntyre, paused the order, invoking the office’s internal approval process. “As Jack [Smith] mentioned in our budget briefing, he supports more strict requirements than DOJ’s standard policies,” she wrote, adding that skipping those requirements was something she was “not ok with.” In a separate email that same morning, McIntyre said she needed “to crack down on our processes” and had “a lot less leeway in the audit now that I have staff.” The records do not identify which audit she was referring to.
Later that same morning, however, McIntyre approved the purchase before the obligation was even entered into the Unified Financial Management System, DOJ’s standard finance tracking system, because the purchase card was not linked to that system “and the purchase is urgent,” she wrote.
On July 14, Zeman confirmed the order had been submitted. Axon shipped the license dongles — physical devices required to run the software — on July 15. Two weeks later, on August 1, 2023, Smith’s office indicted Trump a second time, this time over alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Missing Paperwork
The released records include additional gaps. Axon’s quote to Smith’s office included a data-sharing arrangement, the company’s Customer Experience Improvement Program, involving the “sharing of de-identified segments of Agency Content with Axon to develop new products.” The only signature page for that agreement included in the release is unsigned, and other related paperwork was not produced.
The purchase card form itself lists only “Investigation software” as justification, with an empty funding section and blank signature blocks. Staff later stated in writing that the form “is signed,” but that signed version was not among the documents released.
What became of the purchased software, the license dongles, or any related project files after the investigation ended is not addressed in the records.
What Followed
After Trump won the November 2024 election, Smith dropped the election-interference case. A federal judge had already dismissed Smith’s classified-documents case. Smith resigned nine days before Trump’s inauguration, at which point he would almost certainly have been removed from his post regardless.
President Joe Biden has reportedly expressed regret over appointing Attorney General Merrick Garland, who in turn appointed Smith, complaining that the Special Counsel’s office had not moved quickly or aggressively enough against Trump.
