WASHINGTON — Former special counsel Jack Smith squared off with Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee who accused him Tuesday of illegally targeting President Trump and GOP lawmakers.
Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) accused Smith of running a “corrupt operation” that “undermined the rule of law and threatened our very political institutions.”
“Mr. Smith’s operation was a partisan weapon that broke the rules, lied to the court, and engaged in bad faith throughout his operation,” Grassley added, contending that the outcome of the special counsel’s probe “has no credibility.”
Smith had been tapped as special counsel in November 2022 by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland, who tasked Smith with handling two cases against Trump — one for hoarding national security papers at Mar-a-Lago and another related to his attempt to overturn the 2020 election result.
“Mr. Smith prosecuted Trump for allegedly mishandling classified information,” Grassley noted. “[But] his team left a classified facility open, causing a security violation while prosecuting Trump for effectively the same offense.”
Smith remained defiant in his opening statement, telling the committee: “I stand by my decisions as Special Counsel, including my decision to bring charges against President Trump,” Smith said during his opening remarks. “I made these decisions without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election.”
“Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation,” Smith added. “If asked whether to prosecute a former President based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether that President was a Republican or a Democrat.”
The special counsel’s team brought a total of 41 felony counts against Trump across the two cases.
The Mar-a-Lago case was thrown out by a Florida federal judge who ruled Smith had been illegally appointed, while the 2020 election case ended after Trump was returned to office in 2024.
Democrats on the panel stood by Smith, with ranking member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) recalling the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, “when this cathedral of democracy was overrun by violent insurrectionists at the direction of the president.”
“Thankfully, Mr. Smith, who is here today and will be under oath, and his team of nonpartisan career prosecutors had the necessary experience to tackle this assignment,” Durbin later added. “…The aspersions cast on Mr. Smith nonstop are petty, personal and political. They are nothing but a smokescreen.”
