Former special counsel Jack Smith testified Thursday before the House Judiciary Committee to defend his investigations into President Donald Trump, insisting he had acted without political motive. “No one should be above the law in our country, and the law required that he be held to account,” Smith said of Trump. The hourslong hearing split immediately along partisan lines, with Republican lawmakers seeking to undermine Smith while Democrats sought to elicit evidence of Trump’s conduct.
The hearing played out against a backdrop of an ongoing Trump administration retribution campaign targeting the investigators who scrutinized the president, raising questions about the institutional independence of the Justice Department under the current administration.
Smith told the committee that his investigation had developed “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that Trump engaged in criminal activity. The investigation produced two separate indictments: one charging Trump with conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election after he lost to Democrat Joe Biden, and a second accusing Trump of hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, after leaving the White House.
Both cases were abandoned after Trump won the 2024 election because Justice Department legal opinions prohibit indicting a sitting president.
Republicans Attack Investigation as Political
Republican lawmakers, led by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, sought to portray Smith as an overly aggressive prosecutor who had to be “reined in” by higher-ups and the courts. They seized on revelations that Smith’s team had subpoenaed the phone records of a group of Republican lawmakers, which revealed incoming and outgoing phone numbers and call duration but not the content of communications.
“We should never forget what took place, what they did to the guy we, the people, elected twice,” Jordan said, advancing a frequent Trump talking point that the investigation was driven by a desire to derail Trump’s candidacy.
Rep. Brandon Gill of Texas said the phone-records episode showed how Smith had “walked all over the Constitution.”
Smith defended the subpoena as necessary to document any contact Trump or his surrogates may have had with lawmakers on January 6, 2021, when Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol as Congress worked to certify the election results. “My office didn’t spy on anyone,” Smith said, explaining that collecting phone records is a standard prosecutorial tactic.
“It was always about politics,” Jordan asserted.
“Maybe for them,” retorted Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin. “But, for us, it’s all about the rule of law.”
Smith Describes Wide-Ranging Conspiracy
Under questioning, Smith described what he said was a wide-ranging conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results. He recounted how Trump had refused to listen to advisers who told him that the contest had not been stolen. After being charged, Smith said, Trump tried to silence and intimidate potential witnesses against him.
Smith said one reason he felt confident in the strength of his case was the extent to which it relied on Republican supporters of Trump. “Some of the most powerful witnesses were witnesses who, in fact, were fellow Republicans who had voted for Donald Trump, who had campaigned for him and who wanted him to win the election,” Smith said.
He said he would prosecute the same facts against any president regardless of party affiliation. “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,” Smith told lawmakers.
Smith also addressed concerns about the Trump administration’s targeting of investigators. When asked by Democratic Rep. Becca Balint of Vermont whether he was concerned the Trump administration would try to prosecute him, Smith said: “I believe they will do everything in their power to do that because they’ve been ordered to by the president.”
Smith emphasized the broader stakes of the investigation. “My belief is that if we do not hold the most powerful people in our society to the same standards—the rule of law—it can be catastrophic because, if they don’t have to follow the law, it’s very easy for people to understand why they don’t have to follow the law.”
Trump Attacks Smith Online
As Smith testified, Trump traveled back from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, posting on his Truth Social account that “Deranged Jack Smith should be prosecuted for his actions” and asserting without evidence that the prosecutor had committed perjury.
Republican lawmakers also pressed Smith on his team’s request for a court order restricting Trump from making what prosecutors described as incendiary comments about prosecutors, potential witnesses, and others involved in the case. Smith said the order was necessary because of Trump’s efforts to intimidate witnesses. Rep. Ben Cline of Virginia asserted that it was meant to silence Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign.
Rep. Kevin Kiley of California accused Smith of seeking “maximum litigation advantage at every turn” and “circumventing constitutional limitations to the point that you had to be reined in again and again throughout the process.”
Smith vigorously rejected suggestions that his investigation was driven by politics. “Our investigation revealed that Donald Trump is the person who caused Jan. 6, it was foreseeable to him and that he sought to exploit the violence,” Smith said.