The wife of newly appointed special counsel Jack Smith is a filmmaker who produced a movie about former first lady Michelle Obama and donated to President Biden’s 2020 campaign.
Katy Chevigny is credited as a producer on “Becoming,” a 2020 documentary about Obama, and Federal Election Commission records show that she donated $2,000 in support of Biden’s presidential run that same year.
“Becoming” centered on the former first lady’s 2019 book tour promoting her memoir of the same title. Big Mouth Productions, where Chevigny is employed as a director and producer, is listed as one of the production companies that worked on the film.
Chevigny and Big Mouth Productions also worked on the 2018 documentary titled “Dark Money.” The film is described as a “political thriller” that “takes viewers to Montana – a front line in the fight to preserve fair elections nationwide – to follow an intrepid local journalist working to expose the real-life impact of the US Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.”
Big Mouth Productions is also listed as Chevigny’s employer on FEC filings that show her donations to Biden’s campaign. Records show she donated $1,000 to Biden for President and another $1,000 to the Biden Victory Fund in September of 2020. Chevigny also made seven other $10 donations to ActBlue, a Democratic fundraising platform, and to MoveOn.org’s political action committee in 2010.
Chevigny married Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland last week to complete the Justice Department’s two investigations into former President Donald Trump and weigh potential criminal charges, in 2011.
Garland appointed the veteran prosecutor in an effort to insulate the Justice Department from accusations of it not being impartial in its investigations now that the 76-year-old Trump has announced his 2024 candidacy. Trump is under investigation for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 elections and for his handling of classified presidential documents after his presidency.
However, Chevigny’s political ties are now raising questions about Smith’s impartiality.
“You just can’t make this stuff up,” Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) wrote on Twitter. “Katy Chevigny, wife of Jack Smith—the special counsel appointed by DOJ to go after President Trump, donated to Joe Biden’s campaign and produced Michelle Obama’s documentary.”
“America cannot stand with a corrupt, two-tiered justice system,” he added.
“You would think that if the stated purpose to avoid any type of concern about bias were sincere, then they would at least check to see whether or not when you shake the family tree of the special counsel, any virulent Trump haters, Never Trumpers, Biden supporters fall out,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said during an interview with Steve Bannon on Tuesday.
“Very interesting… was just told the wife isn’t only a major donor, but also the producer of the gushing Michelle Obama documentary… No wonder Jack Smith accepted this special assignment… The swamp is hard at work!” former Trump spokesman Taylor Budowitch wrote in a tweet.
This isn’t the first time that a prominent public figure has drawn backlash over their spouse’s political activism.
Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, drew the ire of many on the left when it was revealed that she wrote letters to lawmakers states such as Wisconsin and Arizona urging them to overturn the results of the 2020 elections and sent text messages to former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows begging him to not concede the race.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) argued that Justice Thomas should recuse himself from Jan. 6 cases given his wife’s activism, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) went further, saying that Thomas should resign from the Supreme Court.