investigation on Smith...............

If it goes to court and if Smith should lose (very slim possibility of either happening) he'd be liable for some kind of money damages or fines.

However you do make a good point that IF the lawsuit against Smith goes forward, he has every right to defend himself against the lawsuit. That defense might include him revealing some of the evidence he developed against Chump's January 6 activities. I don't believe Smith did any investigating into Epstein or the "friendship" between Epstein and Chump.

Trump's modeling agency was part of Jeffrey's pipeline:
https://www.motherjones.com

In the late 20th century, John Casablancas (founder of Elite Model Management) built the original model: turn teenage girls into glamorized assets. Jean-Luc Brunel took it international, founding MC2 and receiving at least $1 million from Jeffrey Epstein to expand operations. Paolo Zampolli cornered the visa angle, using U.S. immigration loopholes to bring in young foreign models — often from Eastern Europe and South America — under false pretenses.

In 1999, Donald Trump launched Trump Model Management. His agency followed the exact same pattern: bring girls in on tourist or “extraordinary talent” visas, overcrowd them in overpriced apartments, charge them for every service, and send them to work illegally while racking up debt they could never repay. Former models from his agency say they were instructed to lie to customs and start working immediately upon arrival.
Trump purchased the Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, and Miss Universe pageants — contests where he would later admit to entering dressing rooms unannounced. “I’ll go backstage before a show… and I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant,” he told Howard Stern in a 2005 interview. “You know, they’re standing there with no clothes… and so I sort of get away with things like that.”

So I think it goes like this:
Trump and Epstein were pedos, but it was Epstein's business. Trump gets a chance to buy the Miss Universe / Miss Teen franchise, and then open a modelling agency, so now he a has a fresh supply of victims. He uses Melania (since she was a call girl) and Maxwell to groom the girls, and get them work at Mar a Logo, where they will be in contact with pedos. Soften them up, in Trump Speak.

Virginia Giuffre's Deposition
Virginia states it was Maxwell who recruited her from Mar-a-largo in 2000 (possibly 1999). It was Maxwell who trained her. Virgina thought Maxwell was the leader. She states Epstein and Maxwell were glued at the hips, abused girls together, and Maxwell abused girls on a daily basis. She also states the plane logs are incomplete as the only cover one plane (Epstein I believe had three). Ghislaine had a helicopter given to her by Epstein that she used to fly people to the island.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7010864-Virginia-Giuffre-Maxwell-Deposition/

Meanwhile, Epstein buys Little and "Big" St. James Islands, to set up his pedo playground:

The 66-year-old financier bought Little St. James Island off this US Caribbean territory more than two decades ago and began to transform it. "Everybody called it 'Pedophile Island,'" said Kevin Goodrich, who is from St. Thomas and operates boat charters. "It's our dark corner."
One former worker described a strict "keep to yourself and do your thing" atmosphere when Epstein was present, implying workers were discouraged from observing his activities closely. This individual also recounted seeing young women on the property and believed them to be over 18, though they acknowledged some uncertainty. 
Another worker noted the secrecy surrounding a particular steel safe in Epstein's office, suggesting it contained sensitive materials beyond just money. This worker also revealed that employees were not permitted to enter certain rooms, including the offices, without authorization.

FINALLY - Trump and Epstein have a human trafficking / pedo ring, mixed with money laundering - this accounts for that 1.1 billion Trump was depositing to Epstein's accounts in 4725 Transfers.

THIS is why Trump is frantic to stop the investigation. Not only pedophilia, not only international and domestic human trafficking, but a money laundering scheme, no doubt, with Putin. Don't forget that Putin bailed Trump out by giving him money through a shady Deuschbank loan, when no US bank would loan him money.

AND
This is why Trump is frantic to silence Maxwell - being a partner of Epstein, she knows the whole story and no doubt has some "insurance" stashed so she won't suddenly commit "suicide".

That's a very well organized summary of what I think happened/is happening with this issue. There are so problems created by this shitstain and his enablers all at once now that I'm wearing my hazmat suit 24-7.

Your summary seems plausible, but your link to Motherjones doesn't go to any story about Trump or Epstein, where did you get the information in your summary?

... but from what I've read in the Miami Herald and others investigative news stories is this:
Maxwell and Epstein did most of their recruiting of young girls/women from poor circumstances. Girls who were from broken homes, missing or indifferent parents, runaways or high school dropouts, etc. These were girls who wouldn't be missed if they didn't come home on time, or if they didn't come home at all. Once they recruited one girl, they got her to bring in as many friends from the same age group as possible.

The girls who are usually involved in beauty contests and such, these girls were from families that kept tight control on their whereabouts. These girls were invested in, the parents were always watching and usually accompanied them everywhere. The only way Chump was able to see them "dressing" was that parents weren't allowed in the backstage dressing rooms. But the parents were certainly nearby since the contestants had to be accompanied. It takes a lot of money (from the parents) for these girls to participate in beauty pageants, that was Chump's scam all along.

For these reasons, I don't believe there was any "recruiting" going on at the Miss Teen beauty contests. Not for the type of trafficking that Epstein and Maxwell engaged in.