In 2017, he confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that, along with former national security advisor Michael Flynn, he had tried in 2016 to contact computer hackers, including Russian hackers, in an attempt to obtain opposition research material to use against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
Ten days after speaking to the paper, he committed suicide in a Minnesota hotel room, citing ill health.
[1] From 1969 to 1980 he was a senior officer at Field Enterprises, Inc. From 1975 to 1997 he was president of his own firm, Peter W. Smith & Company, specializing in buyout transactions.
He was a board member and officer of the Atlantic Council of the United States and was also active with The Heritage Foundation, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Brookings Institution.
[9] In May 2017 Smith told Shane Harris of the Wall Street Journal that he had been actively involved, during the 2016 presidential election campaign, trying to obtain emails he believed had been deleted from Hillary Clinton's computer server.
[10][11] Smith stated, "We knew the people who had these were probably around the Russian government" and told various internet groups to give any emails to Wikileaks.
Medical records listed Smith's cause of death as "asphyxiation due to displacement of oxygen in confined space with helium."
Police discovered a suicide note by Smith that stated "no foul play whatsoever", and that he was in poor health and his life insurance policy was about to expire.