By Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff and Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Former US special counsel Jack Smith told senators on Tuesday that he will not be silenced by threats of prosecution, as he faced Republican accusations of abuse of power in his investigations of President Donald Trump.
Smith brought two since-dismissed criminal cases against Trump over his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his alleged mishandling of classified documents after his first term.
He condemned the firings of investigators in his office, accusing the Trump administration of “vilification of the agents, prosecutors and staff who served on my team.”
“I will not be silenced by the continued threats of prosecution from the president or others,” Smith told the Senate Judiciary Committee, appearing voluntarily for his second public hearing before Congress on his investigations of Trump.
Republican lawmakers, who have repeatedly blasted Smith for what they see as vindictive, politically driven prosecutions of Trump and his allies, alleged Smith abused his authority and used his investigations to obtain information from a variety of Republican officials and groups.
Senator Chuck Grassley, the Republican chair of the Judiciary Committee, said his office had information that Smith’s office also secured records on Republican donors and journalists’ communications with government officials.
“This wasn’t a normal prosecution,” Grassley said. “Mr. Smith’s operation was a partisan weapon that broke the rules.”
At one point, apparent confusion over a reference to Smith attending a basketball game in February 2024 prompted Eric Schmitt, a Republican senator from Missouri, to accuse the former special counsel of perjury.
Based on text messages Schmitt said his office had viewed, he accused Smith of attending an Atlanta Hawks basketball game, suggesting that would have placed him in the city where local prosecutor Fani Willis was also trying to prosecute Trump.
Smith denied attending the Hawks game, saying he instead recalled going to a women’s college basketball game between the Iowa “Hawkeyes” and the University of Maryland. The teams played in Maryland on February 3, 2024.
Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, a Democrat, called on Schmitt to apologize for accusing Smith of perjury and implying wrongdoing “based on confusion about the name of a team.”
Democrats have defended Smith’s investigations as holding Trump and others accountable for unlawful actions and argue that Republicans are the ones trying to carry out vindictive justice on behalf of Trump.
“The aspersions cast on Mr. Smith nonstop are petty, personal and political,” said Senator Dick Durbin, the panel’s top Democrat. “They are nothing but a smokescreen to distract from the president’s own clear unlawful conduct.”
Smith said his investigations followed Justice Department policy and were not influenced by politics. He has been the constant target of Trump, who has called for Smith’s prosecution.
SMITH OBTAINED PHONE RECORDS
Republican efforts to hold Smith responsible for his alleged abuse of power have picked up in the past year, though no charges against him have been filed. Smith gave closed-door testimony to a Republican-led House committee in December, saying the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot “does not happen” without Trump. Smith then gave public testimony before the same committee in January.
Much of the Republican criticism of Smith has focused on records his investigators obtained involving members of Congress. Smith obtained phone call logs from several Republican senators around the time of the Capitol riot. In July, Republican senators revealed that Smith also reviewed texts from 44 US lawmakers as part of a review of material from White House aides.
Durbin told Smith there was “appropriate concern” from lawmakers about his team’s work related to Congress.
Smith responded that lawmakers’ phone records were necessary to his probe because investigators had evidence that Trump and his allies sought to contact senators on the day of the riot, attempting to use the chaos to delay a Senate vote to certify the election results.
Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas whose phone records were sought by Smith, pressed the prosecutor over why the senators were not made aware of the subpoenas. Smith, who was repeatedly interrupted by Cruz as he tried to answer, said prosecutors had reason to believe Trump and associates might destroy evidence if the subpoenas were made public.
“Is it a crime to be a Republican?” Cruz asked after ticking through the conservative organizations that Smith’s team sought information on.
“Absolutely not,” Smith said.
Representative Jim Jordan, the Republican chair of the House Judiciary Committee, referred Smith to the Justice Department in July, claiming he made false statements in prior testimony about the nature of those phone records.
Smith was asked specifically about material known as toll records from members of Congress, which do not contain the content of any conversations.
Smith’s lawyers have said Smith provided truthful information in his answers and was not required to divulge information that lawmakers did not ask about.
(Reporting by Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff and Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Michael Learmonth, Daniel Wallis, Deepa Babington and Sanjeev Miglani)
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