WASHINGTON — Former special counsel Jack Smith faced a sharp Republican challenge Tuesday as members of the Senate Judiciary Committee accused him of improperly targeting President Trump and congressional Republicans.
Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) characterized Smith’s work as a “corrupt operation” that, he said, “undermined the rule of law and threatened our very political institutions.”
Grassley further alleged that Smith’s investigation operated as a partisan tool, violated legal procedures, misled the court and acted in bad faith. As a result, he argued, the special counsel’s findings “have no credibility.”
Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith special counsel in November 2022 to oversee two federal cases involving Trump: one focused on the former president’s retention of national security documents at Mar-a-Lago and another concerning efforts to overturn the 2020 election outcome.
Grassley pointed to what he described as a contradiction in Smith’s work. “Mr. Smith prosecuted Trump for allegedly mishandling classified information,” the chairman said, while alleging that Smith’s own team left a classified facility unsecured, resulting in a security violation during the prosecution.
Smith, however, defended his record in his opening statement. “I stand by my decisions as Special Counsel, including my decision to bring charges against President Trump,” he told senators. Smith said his actions were not influenced by Trump’s political affiliation, activities, beliefs or campaign for the 2024 presidency.
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Smith said the investigation uncovered evidence “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Trump had committed serious crimes against the country. He added that he would make the same prosecutorial decision today under identical circumstances, regardless of whether the president involved was a Republican or a Democrat.
Across the two cases, Smith’s team filed 41 felony charges against Trump.
The Mar-a-Lago prosecution was dismissed by a Florida federal judge, who determined that Smith’s appointment was unlawful. The election-related case was later abandoned after Trump returned to the presidency in 2024.
Democrats on the committee defended Smith. Ranking member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) invoked the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, describing it as the moment “when this cathedral of democracy was overrun by violent insurrectionists at the direction of the president.”
Durbin said Smith and his team of career prosecutors brought the experience needed to handle the cases. He dismissed the continuing criticism of the former special counsel as “petty, personal and political,” calling it a distraction from the substance of the investigation.