DEFIANT TESTIMONY
Former Special Counsel Jack Smith delivered defiant testimony before the House Judiciary Committee Thursday, telling lawmakers he stands by his decision to indict Donald Trump and would do it again regardless of party affiliation. Smith opened with a direct challenge to Republican claims of political prosecution: “President Trump was charged because the evidence established that he willfully broke the very laws that he took an oath to uphold.” The career prosecutor who twice indicted a president sat before a hostile Republican majority already calling for his imprisonment, while Trump’s Justice Department systematically fires lawyers and FBI agents who worked on the investigations. Smith told the committee that if asked to prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, his answer would be identical. “No one should be above the law in our country, and the law required that he be held to account. So that is what I did.”
JORDAN’S POLITICAL ATTACK
Republican Chairman Jim Jordan opened the hearing with a sweeping attack framing Smith’s investigation as part of a decade-long Democrat conspiracy to destroy Trump. Jordan claimed Smith subpoenaed phone records of then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy just 16 days after he took the gavel in January 2023, obtaining two years of call logs showing who McCarthy talked to, when, and for how long. The chairman accused Smith of getting a gag order on AT&T so the company couldn’t inform McCarthy the government had seized his phone records, claiming prosecutors told the court McCarthy was a flight risk. Jordan’s opening stretched back to 2016, recounting the Steele dossier, the Mueller investigation, two impeachments, and prosecutions by Alvin Bragg and Fani Willis to paint Smith as the culmination of relentless lawfare. The country should never forget what they did to the guy we elected president twice, Jordan said, setting the partisan tone for three hours of testimony.
PHONE RECORDS CONTROVERSY
Smith defended the subpoenas for congressional phone records as standard investigative practice when examining a conspiracy to overturn an election. Republican lawmakers pressed him on why he needed metadata showing call patterns of members of Congress during the period between Election Day 2020 and January 7, 2021. Smith explained that when investigating a criminal conspiracy involving coordination between multiple parties, phone records establish who was talking to whom and when those conversations occurred. The special counsel noted that one of his team members, Thomas Windham, took the Fifth Amendment 71 times when deposed by the committee and has been referred to the Justice Department for obstructing their investigation. Smith pushed back on suggestions the subpoenas were political, noting the records were essential to establishing the timeline and relationships at the heart of Trump’s alleged conspiracy to remain in power after losing the election.
GAG ORDER DEFENSE
Smith faced aggressive questioning about his request for a gag order restricting Trump’s speech during the 2020 election interference case. A Virginia Republican accused Smith of seeking to silence a presidential candidate without identifying a single witness who had been intimidated or prevented from coming forward. Smith responded that Trump had publicly stated “if you come after me, I’m coming after you” and suggested a witness should be put to death, creating an environment that deters cooperation with investigators. The special counsel argued that prosecutors don’t have to wait until someone gets killed before seeking court protection for witnesses, court staff, and the integrity of judicial proceedings. Smith noted both the district court and appeals court upheld his motion, with the appeals court narrowing it to cover witnesses, court staff, the judge, and Smith’s team but removing Smith himself from protection. The prosecutor said he made no apologies for seeking the order, particularly after the district judge received vile death threats following Trump’s public attacks.
PREVIOUS PROSECUTIONS
Republicans attempted to undermine Smith’s credibility by highlighting previous cases where his aggressive legal interpretations were rejected by higher courts. A Virginia congressman pointed to Smith’s prosecution of Governor Bob McDonnell in 2014, which resulted in a conviction that the Supreme Court unanimously overturned. The court criticized Smith for using a “boundless interpretation” of federal bribery statutes that had broader legal implications beyond that case. Republicans also raised Smith’s prosecution of John Edwards, which ended with a jury deadlock on five charges and acquittal on another. Smith acknowledged believing his legal interpretations were correct in both cases, but maintained that the Trump prosecution rested on far stronger legal and factual foundations. The special counsel told lawmakers he had “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that Trump engaged in criminal activity, distinguishing these cases from earlier prosecutions that faced different legal questions and evidentiary standards.
DISRUPTION IN THE CHAMBER
The hearing was briefly interrupted when Michael Fanone, the former D.C. police officer beaten during the January 6 attack, was escorted from the committee room after an outburst. Republicans complained about the “deranged observer” disrupting proceedings. The moment underscored the raw emotions surrounding Smith’s testimony, with January 6 survivors watching the prosecutor who investigated their attackers face hostile questioning from lawmakers who have minimized the attack. Smith’s testimony continues, with Democrats expected to use their questioning time to elicit details about Trump’s conduct and the evidence prosecutors gathered. The special counsel faces an uncertain future as Trump has publicly called for Smith to be thrown in prison, and an independent ethics watchdog has opened an investigation into Smith himself.
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