Jack Smith, who as special counsel twice charged Donald J. Trump after his first term, is set to testify to Congress on Tuesday as Republicans vow to scrutinize his every word for possible prosecution.
Mr. Smith’s third appearance before lawmakers, this time in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is likely to be contentious. Already, he has fielded questions before a House committee in late 2025 and early 2026. In the intervening months, Republican lawmakers have urged that Mr. Smith be criminally prosecuted, claiming his answers about his investigations into Mr. Trump were misleading.
“I will not be silenced by the continued threats of prosecution from the president or others,” he plans to tell senators, according to a copy of his prepared remarks. “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.”
Mr. Smith’s testimony will be the latest public clash over the use of prosecutorial power in American politics, and the ways Mr. Trump has tried to redirect a Justice Department that once sought to convict him into one that targets his perceived enemies. Since returning to the White House last year, Mr. Trump has declared that he was once hunted but has now become “the hunter.”
In late 2022, Mr. Smith, a former prosecutor of federal corruption and international war crimes, was tapped to oversee criminal investigations of Mr. Trump, who had signaled he intended to mount another run for office. The next year, Mr. Smith brought two indictments against Mr. Trump. One charged Mr. Trump with mishandling classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. The other charged him with a criminal conspiracy to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost.
Mr. Smith insisted that he brought charges because Mr. Trump “engaged in criminal activity,” and not because of any political agenda to stop Mr. Trump’s resurgence, as the president’s Republican allies have asserted. Mr. Trump triumphed over the two federal cases by winning re-election in 2024, leading to Mr. Smith’s resignation.
Since then, Republicans have pursued Mr. Smith, arguing that he abused his power as a prosecutor for the political benefit of the Biden administration.
Since leaving government, Mr. Smith has said the Justice Department has been “corrupted” by Trump loyalists who have wrecked its credibility and sought to undermine the rule of law.
Attorney General Todd Blanche, in testimony to Congress in July, suggested the department would investigate Mr. Smith to determine if he had lied to Congress.
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