Jack Smith told the Senate Judiciary Committee under oath on Tuesday morning that Donald Trump committed serious crimes against the United States, and that no threat of prosecution will stop him saying so.
"Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation," the former special counsel said in his opening statement. He stood by both indictments, the scheme to overturn the 2020 election and the classified files kept at Mar-a-Lago, and said he would have brought the same cases "regardless of whether that President was a Republican or a Democrat." "I will not be silenced by the continued threats of prosecution from the president or others," he said, answering the perjury referral House Republicans sent to the Justice Department in July. Trump has said he did nothing wrong.
Grassley gaveled the hearing open at 9 a.m. and closed it shortly after 1 p.m., four hours of questioning that came eight months after Smith testified to the House. Grassley used his closing remarks, at about 1:10 p.m., to deliver the Republican verdict: Smith's "own words and that of his staff have told the tale of rampant wrongdoing and political conduct."
In those four hours, no Republican senator argued that Trump did not do what Smith described. Chairman Chuck Grassley opened instead with a theory: Smith, he said, had spent the election case "mapping out the Republican apparatus." The committee's top Democrat, Dick Durbin, said his colleagues were spreading "baseless conspiracy theories." Louisiana's John Kennedy asked Smith about his wife's opinion of the Obamas. "I'm not going to talk about my family here today," Smith answered. "I'm here to talk about my work as special counsel."
