Former special counsel Jack Smith told Senate Republicans his Trump charges rested on evidence, even as they demanded answers on sweeping probes of GOP groups, lawmakers’ records, and a pending Justice Department referral.
Jack Smith sat alone before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday and defended the two federal cases he brought against President Donald Trump, insisting the charges were the “result of evidence” and that he stood by his decisions as special counsel.
Republicans framed the hearing as overdue accountability. The session carried the title “Oversight of Jack Smith’s Abuse of Authority and the Targeting of Republicans and Related Matters,” and Chairman Chuck Grassley made plain what he wanted on the record.
The Washington Examiner reported that Grassley said last week Smith “must answer for what he did to hundreds of Republican groups and individuals.”
"The records made public to-date show rampant abuse of authority and political targeting, all on the taxpayers’ dime. If Jack Smith did that to Democrats, you’d never hear the end of it. I look forward to achieving some accountability on the part of the misguided Biden Justice Department."
Smith’s opening statement struck a different note. He cast himself as a defender of the rule of law under pressure and turned the accusation outward.
"It is my belief that the rule of law faces challenges unlike any we have experienced in our lifetime. Individuals are threatened with criminal investigation because they are perceived to have opposed the President,"
That line landed against a backdrop Republicans say Smith helped create. Both of his Trump cases are gone. The election-interference case was dismissed after Trump’s reelection under long-standing Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the separate classified-documents case tied to the August 2022 FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, ruling that Smith’s appointment itself was unlawful.
Grassley has spearheaded disclosures around the Arctic Frost election investigation, including investigators’ acquisition of congressional telephone records. Republican reports describe toll records and text-message material touching 44 lawmakers, including some Democrats.
The fuller scope, as described in the same reporting, reached more than 100 individuals and Republican-linked groups. Turning Point USA was among the organizations named in that sweep.
Senators were expected to test whether the inquiry crossed the Constitution’s speech or debate clause, which shields core legislative work from executive interference. A member of Smith’s team, Tad Dupree, said in transcripts released by House Republicans that investigators were “hypervigilant and extremely aware of the contours” of that protection.
Ranking Democrat Dick Durbin told Roll Call the hearing gave Smith a chance to answer accusations Republicans have circulated for months. Smith’s posture was unchanged from his January appearance before a House counterpart, when he told lawmakers his team had assembled evidence he said proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump took part in a criminal scheme to overturn the 2020 election. Trump denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty in both matters.
The Senate session was not Smith’s first turn under Republican questioning, and it was not free of unfinished business from the House. In July, Rep. Jim Jordan referred Jack Smith to the Justice Department over allegations that he misled Congress about investigators’ collection of lawmakers’ text messages.
The dispute turns on Smith’s December deposition. Asked whether he sought a search warrant for the contents of members’ text messages, Smith answered, “No, I don’t recall that.” He also agreed he had stopped short of searching the texts. Jordan contends records disclosed later contradict those answers.
Smith’s lawyer, Peter Koski, rejected the referral’s premise. Koski said Jordan’s latest report contains a “mischaracterization of the facts and the law” and that the former special counsel “followed the normal DOJ process.”
Attorney General Todd Blanche now leads the department that received the referral. Blanche previously represented Trump. The Justice Department has not indicated any status update since the July referral arrived.
Senate Republicans already moved Blanche into that post on a fast track, with votes lined up before the August recess to install him atop the department now weighing Jordan’s file.
A separate paper trail landed days before the hearing. Breitbart published a Monday report, based on Justice Department records obtained by the conservative watchdog Oversight Project through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, describing an urgent push inside Smith’s office to buy Axon forensic video software.
Staff sought the tool to convert video and audio files in the weeks before Trump’s August 2023 election indictment. An executive officer first insisted on ordinary internal purchasing procedures, then authorized the rush buy before an obligation was even entered in the department’s financial system.
The released paperwork leaves open questions about approvals, the exact cost of Axon’s services, and what material the software was meant to process. Republicans treating the hearing as a full audit of Smith’s tenure folded that episode into the same accountability demand Grassley voiced on the broader targeting of Republican groups and individuals.
Smith, for his part, accused the current administration of trying to lock in “predetermined outcomes” and to prosecute the president’s perceived enemies. That claim sat beside the record of two dismissed Trump prosecutions, a House referral alleging false testimony, Arctic Frost’s reach into congressional records and GOP-aligned groups, and a last-minute software purchase that skipped normal financial controls.
Partisan warfare around Trump has not cooled in Congress. House Democrats have already begun talking up new impeachment theories if they regain the majority, with one California Democrat framing a third impeachment as “setting a standard.”
Trump won reelection in part by campaigning against what he called the weaponization of justice and lawfare. His average approval rating stands at roughly 37 percent, the lowest since he returned to office, even as the legal machinery built against him has stalled or collapsed in court.
Tuesday’s hearing put the architect of those cases under oath before a Republican Senate majority that intends to keep the focus on process, scope, and whether the Biden-era Justice Department used criminal tools as a political weapon. Smith said he followed the evidence. Grassley said the public record shows something else: abuse of authority aimed at Republicans, paid for by taxpayers, and still short of real consequences.
Voters were told no one is above the law. They are entitled to see that rule applied to the prosecutors, too.