Jack Smith is “not afraid” of Donald Trump, whom he unsuccessfully tried to take to trial during the 2024 campaign, his legal team told CNN Wednesday.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Jack Smith is “not afraid” of Donald Trump, whom he unsuccessfully tried to take to trial during the 2024 campaign, his legal team told CNN Wednesday.
The former special counsel has spoken to the House Judiciary Committee before, in private, but on Thursday the cameras will be on, and his team is prepared for members of congress to engage in the political theater that comes with that. Long speeches, they said, are expected.
Smith’s role — in which he brought two criminal indictments against a president — was unprecedented. His public testimony is expected to be major and flashy moment, as Trump has repeatedly called for Smith to be criminally prosecuted. Smith will have to walk a tightrope to avoid violating court secrecy rules around the cases and providing Congress fulsome answers that are likely to be closely scrutinized for accuracy.
Smith’s December 17 testimony before the House Judiciary Committee lasted more than eight hours. Lawmakers grilled him over the two criminal investigations into Trump, one probing the mishandling and retention of classified documents and a second inquiry into his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election.
Both cases Trump faced from the Smith special counsel probe are now dismissed. One ended because Trump won the 2024 presidential election, and the other was dismissed by a Trump-appointed judge who believed Smith’s office wasn’t properly backed by Congress. That judge, Aileen Cannon in South Florida’s federal court, has kept half of Smith’s final report under seal, essentially blocking Smith’s ability to discuss in detail what his investigation found regarding the allegations that Trump unlawfully kept boxes of classified documents in unsecured room at Mar-a-Lago beginning in 2020.
While news outlets including CNN have revealed much about that investigation — such as the audio recording of Trump discussing keeping a classified record in a meeting with staff, and what a key witness who worked for Trump’s Florida resort saw and told Smith’s team — Smith is likely to decline to describe much more than what was specified in the June 2023 indictment of Trump and two of his employees.
Jack Smith didn’t invoke Fifth Amendment during 8 hours of testimony, GOP committee chairman says
Smith, a career prosecutor who had worked in both Republican and Democratic administrations, will emphasize in his testimony his three decades of experience and that he’d prosecute any former presidents on the same facts today, according to his team.
As he did during the closed-door testimony, he is also expected to again explain why he believes the investigation bore proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump engaged in criminal activity.
At least three prosecutors from Smith’s special counsel’s office have spoken to lawmakers in the past few months. That includes Thomas Windom, who led in court the obstruction case against Trump related to the January 6, 2021 US Capitol riot; Jay Bratt, who led the prosecution of Trump over mishandling classified records and obstruction of justice following his first term in office; and JP Cooney, Smith’s deputy in the special counsel’s office.
The key prosecutors on the special counsel’s team — including Windom, Bratt and Smith — are no longer working for the Justice Department.
Republicans have made a criminal referral to the Justice Department on Windom over the way he answered some questions. And Bratt declined to answer questions in his deposition and instead asserted his Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination.
Smith had the option to take the 5th as well, his legal team told CNN, even though they believe he and the special counsel’s office violated no laws in their work.
But Smith is welcoming the opportunity to describe his work in the Justice Department, his team said.
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The hearing has started . Jim Jordan , the Trump flunky who heads the House Judiciary Committee, started it off , not by detailing some reason why Trump is innocent, but by making Trump the victim of "lawfare". Suffice to say Jordan doesnt care about Trumps actions surrounding Jan 6th, and neither will any of the other Republicans on the committee.
Suffice it to say it's a kangaroo court
Yeah, half of it. Although I am expecting Smith to make a compelling case for Trumps guilt, the nature of these hearings is that it is very easy to throw mud in the water.
I dont expect the Republicans to present a single fact that would show Trump's innocence. But they will try to kill the messenger so to speak.
I am expecting Smith to make a compelling case for Trumps guilt
Not for Republicans. They aren’t here to listen, they’re here to plug their ears and loudly go LA LA LA LA in their head anytime they aren’t speaking themselves, like every other congressional hearing.
I'm at work all day so I hope I can catch some of it tomorrow
Jack Smith is being too much of a gentleman and not confronting the animals in the Republican delegation to that committee.
They are trying to goad him into behaving like Kash Patel or Pam Bondi.
“…dont expect the Republicans to present a single fact that would show Trump's innocence.”
Another gop fait accompli, replete with the requisite denial of the incontrovertible truth.
Basically that is all they tried to do.
I was pretty disappointed in what we saw. The Republicans were allowed, both by Smith and by the Democrats , to dominate the proceedings. The J6 committee hearings were much better for getting at the truth. Its over now, Trump has brainwashed half the population about this and the other half hasnt bothered to care enough. He has gotten away with it, not only legally, but in the court of public opinion as well.
These days, our country never fails to disappoint.
This went as I expected. We knew that this was not a forum for Smith to provide his evidence but rather a partisan move to protect Trump.
Jack Smith knows Trump for the evil SOB that he is.
All of us intellectuals know Trump for the fool that he is.
Jack Smith is heroic. Stoic and heroic.
Unfortunately he is behaving too much like Robert Mueller for my taste. He is trying to take the high road with people who are beneath the low road.
What would you have wanted him to do?
Very little actual evidence against Trump was discussed at this hearing.
I thought the whole things was inadequate from the perspective of trying to educate the public about Trump's guilt.
Its all over now, he has his cult brainwashed on the subject of Jan 6th , and the other side is ineffective.
There will never be a trial. The Democrats and even Smith should have used today as a substitute for a trial and presented some of the evidence in detail. They didnt come close to getting that done.
The J6 committee hearings in 2022 were much more effective.
I wonder if it would matter. Anyone who hasn’t seen the massive coverage of the facts probably isn’t watching, and the right has made it plainly obvious that they prefer alternative facts to glaring truths.
True.
Yes, but that was not the Republicans intention in holding the hearing. It would have been good if the Democrats could have done more about that.
Either that and/or they support was happened or just don't care.
That is a problem.
Smith should certainly not be prosecuted.
I can't disgree.
Which is why the Republicans attack them so vehemently.
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I love when he was asked about DOJ policy about not investigating a Presidential candidate during an election
Smith said that an expert told him the election cycle wasn't an election cycle.
About 15 Republicans have spoke by now. How many of them asked questions about the facts of the case? The best they have done is bring up Trumps first amendment right to complain about the election.
The election that Trump lost?
Only Trump needs to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity.
People who think Trump is abusing government power should watch Smith's testimony. Smith makes Trump look like a piker, weaponing the government to spy on his political opponents.
While Smith was testifying today Trump was "truthing" that Bondi needed to prosecute Smith. That sort of thing doesn't faze you.
Smith is a good guy while Trump and Bondi are evil.