Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith appeared before a U.S. House of Representatives committee to defend two criminal prosecutions he led against President Donald Trump.
Smith testified in a closed session Wednesday and was questioned by the House Judiciary Committee about two criminal indictments that he ultimately led.
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The first, filed in June 2023, alleges that President Trump mishandled classified information while in office. The second time, in August of the same year, he accused Republican leaders of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election they lost.
“Our investigation provides evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and prevent the lawful transfer of power,” Smith told the committee.
He also fended off accusations from the Republican-led committee that his investigation was politically motivated.
“I made decisions in this investigation without regard to President Trump’s political affiliations, activities, beliefs, or his candidacy for the 2024 election,” Smith said.
“We acted based on the facts and what the law required. That’s exactly the lesson I learned early in my career as a prosecutor.”
Smith said the basis for his charges “rests entirely with President Trump and his actions,” adding that he would make the same decision today to bring charges whether the defendant in question is a Republican or a Democrat.
Mr. Smith’s appearance in court came as a result of a Republican-led subpoena issued on December 3 for his testimony.
The subpoena gives Smith a Dec. 12 deadline to produce documents related to the case and a Wednesday appearance date in Congress.
But Smith’s remarks were made behind closed doors despite requests for a public hearing.
Still, portions of his opening statement were provided to news organizations such as the Associated Press.
Republicans say the lawsuit against Trump is partisan in nature and aimed at preventing him from running for re-election in 2024.
“This was political. This was about going after the Republican Party, and most importantly, going after the presidential candidate, President Trump,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan said Wednesday on Fox & Friends.
Smith, a former prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, was appointed as special prosecutor at the Justice Department in 2022 under former President Joe Biden.
Special prosecutors are selected from outside the Justice Department to prevent conflicts of interest in politically sensitive cases and work without day-to-day oversight by the Justice Department.
Smith ultimately dropped two federal lawsuits against Trump, saying it was against Justice Department policy to prosecute a sitting president after Republican leaders win re-election in 2024. He then resigned in January, just before President Trump took office.
But President Trump has repeatedly called for Mr. Smith to be indicted for his role in the criminal case.
For example, in October, President Trump posted a link to an article about Smith on his platform Truth Social with the message, “All these thugs should be investigated and put in jail. A disgrace to humanity. Deranged Jack Smith is a criminal!!!”
Since returning to the White House in January, President Trump has aggressively pursued the prosecution of his critics and political opponents and continued to press his false claim that he, not Biden, was the real winner of the 2020 election.
Meanwhile, Democrats are calling on the Trump administration to release the full text of Smith’s reports on two federal lawsuits.
After Wednesday’s hearing, Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, told reporters there was a reason Republicans wanted Smith to testify behind closed doors.
Had Raskin testified publicly on January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, “it would have been an absolutely devastating event for the president and all of the president’s subordinates who were involved in the insurrection,” he said.
