More than a year after his historic prosecutions of Donald Trump were rendered moot by the 2024 presidential election, former Special Counsel Jack Smith defended his indictments as he was grilled by House Republicans in a heated House Judiciary Committee hearing.
“My fear is that we have seen the rule of law functioning in our country for so long that many of us come to take it for granted,” Smith said in his first public testimony since his investigations into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents were dropped.
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The public hearing came as Trump, who repeatedly called Smith a “sick person,” renewed his call in a Truth Social post to send Smith to prison.
Read more: Trump Has Vowed to Prosecute His Political Foes. Here’s Who Could Be Next
Smith offered a strong pushback against House Republicans in his testimony, rebuking Trump’s rhetoric against him and his colleagues, saying many of the narratives spread about his team were “false and misleading.”
“President Trump has sought to seek revenge against career prosecutors, FBI agents, and support staff, simply for having worked on these cases. To vilify and seek retribution against these people is wrong,” Smith said during his testimony.
Smith made clear he still believed that both investigations into Trump were just.
“Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in criminal activity,” Smith said. “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.”
Republicans zeroed in on the scope of Smith’s investigations, including his use of collecting cell phone records of members of Congress, including Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, which Smith said is a “normal practice” in a conspiracy investigation.
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat of the committee, offered his praises to Smith and said he “did everything right.”
“You acted based solely on the facts, the opposite of Donald Trump who now is purported to take over the Department of Justice,” Raskin said, adding that Trump now “acts openly, purely on political vendetta.”
Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican and the Judiciary Chairman also sought to discredit the testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who testified two years ago that Trump did not move quickly to stop the violence at the Capitol on January 6 even as he was made aware of it, and that Trump tried to take control of the wheel of the SUV that he was being driven in that day so he could go to the Capitol.
Thursday’s hearing was the second time Smith sat in for a congressional deposition. In December, Smith testified in a closed-door meeting before the committee. House Republicans later released the transcript of the hearing on New Year’s Eve. In it, Smith similarly defended his investigation and made clear he still believed that Trump is guilty of the charges.
Smith was appointed as special prosecutor by former Attorney General Merrick Garland during the Biden administration to investigate Trump’s handling of classified documents, as well as his effort to overturn the 2020 election. Both cases resulted in criminal indictments against Trump, but the cases were later dropped. Republicans have accused Smith of running partisan investigations in an attempt to stop Trump from getting reelected. In a letter to Smith sent in October, Jordan, the Judiciary Committee chairman, said the investigations “undermined the integrity of the criminal justice system.”
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