Jack Smith has spent years as one of the most talked-about lawyers in America. Now, it seems, he would like very much to be talked about somewhere with a beach.
The former special counsel was reportedly spotted at a Florida airport this week checking in for a flight to the Cayman Islands, with luggage that suggested a stay measured in weeks, not days. A fellow traveler snapped a photo, and within hours the internet had decided exactly what it meant.
He is disappearing.
“He’s fleeing,” one popular account declared, half joking, as the photo racked up views. “Fleeing to a beach chair, but fleeing.”
“Nobody packs four suitcases for a long weekend,” wrote one user, in a post that was shared hundreds of thousands of times. Another joked that Smith was “going to find out what offshore really means.”
To be clear, there is nothing unusual about a lawyer taking a vacation, and the Caymans are a popular spot for people who like sunshine and quiet. But Smith is not a usual lawyer, and the internet does not do quiet.
“He’s earned a break, honestly,” said Alex Bruno, a Washington legal commentator who has followed Smith’s career. “But the man picked the one destination guaranteed to start a thousand memes. If you want people to stop talking about you, you go to Ohio.”
The jokes came quickly and did not stop. Some users made fake travel posters. Others photoshopped Smith into a hammock with a stack of legal briefs as a pillow. One popular account shared a mock listing for a beachfront rental titled “Special Counsel Suite, No Subpoenas Allowed.”
Then came the pardon jokes. With all the talk in Washington lately about last-minute pardons, people started asking whether Smith had secured one for himself.
“Jack Smith does not have an autopardon,” one commentator quipped, “and most likely could not afford one even if he did.”
That line spread as fast as the airport photo. It is a joke, of course, and a mild one by internet standards. But it captured the mood. Smith became famous for chasing other people, and now the crowd is enjoying the idea of him running for the sand.
People close to Smith say the trip is exactly what it looks like, a long and well-deserved vacation. They say he plans to read, fish, and avoid cable news entirely. One friend said Smith laughed at the memes but asked everyone to stop sending them to his phone.
Bruno thinks the attention will fade, eventually. “Give it two weeks,” he said. “Somebody else will do something ridiculous, and Jack will get his hammock back.”
Until then, Smith remains the most famous tourist in the Caribbean. Every sunset photo, every rum punch, every pair of sandals will be watched by people who have decided he is never coming back.
He probably is. But where is the fun in that? Representatives for Smith did not respond to a request for comment.