Ariel K. Smith

Ariel K. Smith is a U.S. Virgin Islands lawyer who served as the 19th attorney general of the United States Virgin Islands from 2023 to 2024.

Early life and education
Smith was born on Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. She graduated from Charlotte Amalie High School. She completed a J.D. from Rutgers Law School.

Career
For over ten years, Smith worked in private practice as an associate attorney with Smock and Moorhead on Saint Thomas. From 2006 to 2011, Smith was an assistant territorial public defender. In this role, she worked in the criminal defense of misdemeanors and felony offenses such as domestic violence and white collar crimes.

In 2011, Smith joined the civil division of the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Justice as an assistant attorney general, serving role for seven years. In 2016, she was promoted to chief of the civil division where she oversaw five attorneys and two support staff.

Attorney General of the Virgin Islands
On March 20, 2023, governor Albert Bryan nominated Smith to succeed Carol Thomas-Jacobs as the attorney general of the United States Virgin Islands.

In May 2023, Elon Musk was subpoenaed by the US Virgin Islands in part of a larger lawsuit against JP Morgan's alleged ties to Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking operations. The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court in Manhattan by former US Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George, in 2022.

On June 30, 2023, Smith was sworn in as attorney general on a permanent basis during a ceremony at the Governor's Mansion. Smith resigned on March 15, 2024.