THE TIGHTENING NOOSE:

The prosecutor tasked with investigating former president Donald Trump is showing so much hustle, he's prompted former prosecutors to say Smith may be gearing up to indict Trump within the first few months of 2023.  [...] 

Others point out Smith is assembling a top-shelf team of hard-charging lawyers--one that appears to mean business.  

"I don't think they would've left their former positions, both in government and private practice, unless there was a serious possibility that the Justice Department was on a path to charge," Preet Bharara, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, told Meet The Press on Sunday. 

"And I think it'll happen in a month," Bharara said. 

Smith has been moving faster than even his famous predecessor, former Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Mueller initially began his two-year probe of the Trump campaign's ties to Russia without an office or a team. 

By contrast, Smith inherited two ongoing investigations that have only appeared to ramp up since his appointment. 

That means Smith is taking over a staff that's already almost twice as big as the team of lawyers that worked for Mueller, according to CNN. 

Immediately after his appointment, Smith promised: "The pace of the investigations will not pause or flag under my watch." And so far, from all outward appearances, it hasn't. 

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