Jack Smith Defends Trump Charges as GOP Attacks Boil Over
WASHINGTON — Former special counsel Jack Smith defended his investigations into Donald Trump on Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, telling senators he stood by the decisions to bring charges in the election interference and classified documents cases. Republican lawmakers used the hearing to accuse him of partisan conduct and improper tactics.
The clash put a fresh spotlight on one of the most politically charged prosecutions in recent U.S. history. It also revived a fight over how far a special counsel can go when investigating a former president — and, in Trump’s case, a sitting one again after his return to office.
Smith pushes back hard
Smith said his team followed Justice Department policy and worked from evidence, not politics. He rejected the idea that partisan motives drove the cases, telling the panel: “I personally find it very hard to understand how our investigation can be viewed as partisan when the strongest witnesses, the people who were the difference between the rule of law standing and not in our case, were Republicans.”
In another line cited from the hearing, Smith said: “Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation.”
Smith, a former war crimes prosecutor at The Hague, was appointed special counsel in 2022 to examine allegations about Trump’s conduct after his first term. In 2023, he brought two criminal indictments against Trump: one tied to Trump’s efforts after the 2020 election and another involving the retention of sensitive government documents.
Republicans focus on subpoenas
Republican senators blasted Smith over his investigative methods, including efforts to obtain toll records from some GOP lawmakers as part of the post-election probe. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley accused Smith of taking “partisanship to a new level.”
The hearing grew contentious at several points. Smith fielded insults and repeated questions about subpoenas issued during the investigation. He said he followed standard protocol.
Trump pleaded not guilty in both cases. The prosecutions ended after he was elected to a second term in November 2024.
What the hearing means now
The hearing mattered beyond the courtroom politics. It gave Republicans a high-profile chance to press the former special counsel over the most sensitive actions in the Trump probes, while Smith used the same forum to defend the structure and conduct of his work.
For Trump, the hearing kept two closed cases in the public eye. For Smith, it was a final public test of the record he built before the prosecutions collapsed with Trump’s return to power. The last thing the panel heard was still the sharpest one: the cases were built on evidence, Smith said, and he stood by them.
