Trump and his team have accused the justice department of pursuing politically motivated cases against him, his associates and Republicans. Trump vowed an immediate overhaul of the department, which he says has been “weaponised” against him, while campaigning for re-election.

His nominee to lead the justice department, Pam Bondi, has echoed Trump’s view that federal prosecutions against him were political persecution, saying the department “had been weaponised for years and years and years”.

Mr Smith has publicly defended his work. In a letter accompanying the final draft of his report into Trump’s actions after the 2020 election, he wrote: “The claim from [Trump] that my decisions as a prosecutor were influenced or directed by the Biden administration or other political actors is, in a word, laughable.”

Also on Monday, Washington DC’s top federal prosecutor announced the launch of an internal review into the charging decisions behind hundreds of Capitol riot cases, according to CBS.

Acting US Attorney Edward Martin, a Trump appointee, ordered prosecutors in his office to turn in documents, emails and other information related to the previous administration’s decision to bring an obstruction charge against more than 200 Capitol attack defendants.