 He was a special prosecutor at The Hague in the Netherlands, prosecuting war crimes in Kosovo, when Attorney General Merrick Garland called him up and asked him to be special counsel. Garland did so because Trump announced that he was going to be a candidate for president of the United States and would keep the DOJ insulated from looking like it was weighing its power on the scale. Judge Cannon has problems with Smith's appointment because he was not Senate-confirmed.