He has the most compelling persona for a public figure in my memory and I can’t put just one finger on why. He’s unhurried, serious without being whatever, calm, unruffled, soft-spoken but well-spoken, his body movements are fluid, even graceful, he speaks without nerves. That’s several fingers.
NYT reporters noted this striking presence the day of Trumpie’s indictment:
June 9, 2023, 3:06 p.m. ET
Maggie Haberman Senior political correspondent
Jack Smith, the special counsel, has started speaking.
Jack Smith has started speaking, OMG. 3 mins later:
June 9, 2023, 3:09 p.m. ET
Maggie Haberman Senior political correspondent
Smith has been such a mysterious figure since November, it’s startling to see him live.
June 9, 2023, 3:12 p.m. ET
Ben Protess Investigative reporter
Smith’s comments were brief and to the point, devoid of the sort of hyperbole and accusations that often appear in a prosecutor’s prepared remarks.
June 9, 2023, 3:15 p.m. ET
Glenn Thrush Department of Justice reporter
Smith, solemn and unsmiling, delivered his remarks in under three minutes, and then he walked slowly out of a conference room at a nondescript northeast Washington office belonging to the Justice Department, past a phalanx of photographers and stone-faced aides who watched from the rear of the room.
Thrush in his full article:
A slim man wearing the generic uniform of federal law enforcement — white shirt, dusky suit, dark monochrome tie — strode to a generic podium inside an anonymous Washington office building to announce something extraordinary. He had just indicted a former president.
The special counsel, Jack Smith, 54, has cut an elusive figure since his appointment last November to investigate former President Donald J. Trump. He has granted no interviews, and kept a profile so low that a recent sighting of him emerging from a Subway with lunch was news in the Justice Department headquarters across town.
But he emerged on Friday to make a concise case for his decision to charge Mr. Trump in connection with the former president’s retention of classified documents.
