WASHINGTON, D.C. — Before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Republicans finally came face to face with former Special Counsel Jack Smith and spent hours attacking the prosecutor for doing his job. Despite months of Arctic Frost hearings designed to discredit Smith in his absence, Republicans yet again failed to debunk the evidence of criminal activity Smith compiled against Donald Trump.
“Jack Smith had sufficient evidence to prove Donald Trump tried to overturn an election, and Senate Republicans spent today trying to punish him for it,” said Brett Edkins, co-chair of the Not Above the Law coalition. “Much to their chagrin, Republicans ended up just embarrassing themselves. Cool and collected, Smith skated by as Republicans descended into name-calling and comical allegations of perjury. Republicans hoped to serve Smith on a silver platter to Donald Trump’s Justice Department, as part of their neverending campaign of revenge, but that plan failed miserably today.”
Here are key lowlights from Jack Smith’s hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee:
Republicans Confused Basketball Teams and Fell Back On Personal Attacks.
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) tried to link Smith to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis by claiming Smith attended an Atlanta Hawks game in Atlanta on Feb. 3, 2024. When Smith denied it, Schmitt displayed a poster board of text messages, had his staff take it down before Smith could review it, called Smith a “dirtbag,” and declared: “I think you’ve already perjured yourself.” Smith later explained that he had attended an Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball game in College Park, Maryland that day. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who helped clear up the confusion, told Schmitt: “I think that people should have their facts straight before they accuse someone of being a dirtbag.”
Not to be outdone, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) pressed Smith to confirm that President Biden or his staff directed Attorney General Merrick Garland to prosecute Trump, repeatedly cutting off Smith’s answers. When Smith said he had no knowledge of any such instruction, Kennedy asked him whether he believed in the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny, then ended his questioning by telling him: “You make me want to throw up in my mouth.”
Republicans Recycled A Perjury Claim For Trump’s DOJ.
Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) opened the hearing by calling Smith’s work a “corrupt operation.” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and others repeated the claim that Smith lied to Congress about whether he sought the contents of lawmakers’ communications. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) has already referred that allegation to the Justice Department, now led by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s defense lawyer. Smith’s lawyers have called the referral meritless.
The toll records at the center of Republicans’ complaints contain only phone numbers and the time and duration of calls, not the contents of any conversation. Rather than challenge the evidence against Trump, Republicans are building a case against the prosecutor who found it.
Republicans Called The Investigation Partisan. Smith Pointed To His Republican Witnesses And The Evidence.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) accused Smith of targeting “half the country for partisan ends.” Smith responded: “I personally find it very hard to understand how our investigation can be viewed as partisan when the strongest witnesses, the people who were the difference between the rule of law standing and not in our case, were Republicans.”
When Sen. Darlene Graham (R-SC) read from a pre-written script, accusing Smith of trying to bully her late brother, Senator Lindsey Graham, Smith stated, “I believe your brother was a patriotic public servant. He was not a target of our investigation. In fact, he likely would have been a witness in our case.”
Smith told senators his investigation proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump engaged in criminal activity in his effort to overturn the 2020 election, and that he would make the same decision to prosecute today regardless of the president’s party. He also made clear the attacks would not deter him: “I will not be silenced by the continued threats of prosecution from the President or others.