Former U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith defended the prosecution of President Donald Trump, rejecting Republican claims that the case was politically motivated.
Testifying before lawmakers before the House Judiciary Committee, Smith said two federal lawsuits, one over President Trump’s handling of classified documents and the other over efforts to overturn the 2020 election, are based on evidence, not politics.
Both lawsuits were dropped after Trump was reelected in November 2024, in line with the Justice Department’s longstanding policy barring investigations and prosecutions of sitting presidents. Smith resigned shortly before Trump was inaugurated as president in January 2025.
The hearing was the first time the American public heard Mr. Smith speak at length since he resigned. He told the panel he expected President Trump’s Justice Department to seek criminal charges against him.
The key points are:
What specifically is known about the incident?
Smith is a corruption prosecutor who was appointed in November 2022 to oversee the Trump investigation.
He investigated two cases:
confidential document
Mr. Smith investigated Mr. Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left office at the end of his first term.
The criminal case includes 31 counts of intentional retention of national defense information under the U.S. Espionage Act, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Separate charges accuse Trump of conspiring to obstruct justice and making false statements to investigators.
Prosecutors have argued that Trump took highly sensitive documents from the White House when he left office in 2021 and then stored them at his Mar-a-Lago, Florida, mansion.
2020 election results
The second lawsuit focused on Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden. Prosecutors argued that rather than accept the results, Trump sought to block the legal transfer of power after the vote.
The charges come after an extensive investigation into the events leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump was charged with four crimes, including conspiracy to commit fraud against the United States and conspiracy against voter rights.
Smith did not accuse Trump of directly inciting the Capitol riot. Instead, the lawsuit focused on Mr. Trump’s actions in the weeks leading up to his election loss and the riot in Washington, examining his efforts to pressure officials, promote false claims of fraud and interfere with the certification of election results.
What were your main takeaways from Thursday’s testimony?
“No one should be above the law”
Smith said the investigation into Trump was based on evidence and the law.
“We followed the facts and we followed the law, resulting in the prosecution of an unprecedented criminal scheme to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power,” Smith said.
“Our investigation produced evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in criminal conduct. If you asked me today whether I would prosecute a former president based on the same facts, I would do so regardless of whether he was a Republican or a Democrat,” Smith said in his opening remarks.
“No one should be above the law in this country, and the law requires that they be held accountable, so that’s why I did it,” Smith added.
Still, the special counsel said he could not bring charges of insurrection against Trump. The case followed the aftermath of January 6, when the House of Representatives pursued impeachment of Trump, but the president was acquitted by the Senate on the only charge of incitement of insurrection.
cassidy hutchinson
Republicans have long focused on challenges to former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony, a key moment in the Congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 attack.
Hutchinson told the committee that he was informed that Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of the presidential car when he requested to go to the Capitol. Other witnesses later disputed that account.
During the hearing, the committee’s chairman, Republican Congressman Jim Jordan, confronted Jack Smith about the episode. “Mr. Smith, is Cassidy Hutchinson a liar?” Jordan asked.
Smith said Hutchinson’s account was second-hand and investigators were unable to verify it. He said Secret Service agents who were in the car at the time did not support this claim.
Mr Jordan pressed Mr Smith on whether Mr Hutchinson would come forward to testify anyway, but Mr Smith said he had “not made a final decision”.
Jordan used that reaction to argue that it showed prosecutors were determined to go after Trump.
Indeed, Smith said one of the “central challenges” in the case was to present the case concisely because “so many witnesses testified,” including state officials, Trump campaign officials and advisers.
“Some of the most powerful witnesses were fellow Republicans who actually voted for Donald Trump, campaigned for him, and wanted him to win the election,” Smith added.
“Threat to democracy”
One Democrat, Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, asked President Trump how his failure to hold him accountable for breaking the law and violating his oath would affect American democracy.
“If we don’t hold the most powerful people in our society to the same standard of the rule of law, it could be catastrophic,” Smith said.
“Because if you don’t have to follow the law, it’s very easy to understand why people think they don’t have to follow the law.”
Smith continued, “If we don’t hold people accountable when they commit a crime, it sends a message that that crime is OK and that our society accepts it…It can jeopardize our electoral process, it can jeopardize election workers, and ultimately our democracy.”
‘I don’t understand’
Smith harshly criticized President Trump’s decision to grant mass pardons to those convicted in connection with the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
On his first day back in office, President Trump pardoned everyone charged in the riot, including hundreds of people charged or convicted of assaulting police officers.
Asked about the move, Smith said: “People who have been tried and found guilty of assaulting police officers are, in my view and in the view of the judge who sentenced them to prison, a danger to the community. As you said, some of these people have already committed crimes against the community again. And I think all of us, if we are reasonable, know that there will be more crimes by these people in the future.”
“I don’t understand why they would give mass pardons to people who assaulted police officers,” Smith said Thursday. “I don’t understand. I’ll never understand.”
At least 140 police officers were injured in the attack on the Capitol, according to reports.
Smith defends his work
Republican lawmakers have sought to portray Mr. Smith as an overly aggressive prosecutor who will need to be restrained by top Justice Department officials as he pursues the case against Mr. Trump ahead of the former president’s possible return to office.
They specifically focused on Mr. Smith’s decision to obtain phone records of members of Congress, including then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, arguing that the move amounted to overreach.
In a heated exchange, Republican Rep. Brandon Gill of Texas accused Smith of using a nondisclosure order to “hide” the subpoena from both the subject and the public.
Smith denied those claims and said the collection of phone records was a routine investigative step aimed at understanding the “scope of the conspiracy” to overturn the 2020 election.
“My office did not spy on anyone,” Smith said.
He added that the secrecy order was sought due to concerns about witness intimidation, noting that Trump had publicly warned that he would “come after” people who crossed his path.
“I had serious concerns about obstruction of justice in this investigation, particularly regarding Donald Trump,” Smith said.
Smith said prosecutors don’t have to “wait until someone is murdered before getting an order to protect the case.”
Trump responds
Trump appeared to be watching Smith’s testimony live and posted on Truth Social as the hearing unfolded, praising the Republican attack on the former special counsel.
“Deranged Jack Smith faces the death penalty before Congress. It was over when Congress debated his past failures and wrongful prosecution,” Trump wrote. “He destroyed many lives under the guise of legitimacy. Jack Smith is a mad animal and should not be allowed to practice law.”
President Trump branded the investigation a “Democrat fraud” and said those involved “will have to pay a heavy price.”
Trump has used similar tactics in the past, using his social media accounts in September to direct the Justice Department to prosecute others who criticized his actions, including New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.
