Jack Smith to testify before Senate Judiciary next week

Former special counsel Jack Smith will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, his second appearance before Congress as they probe his investigation into President Trump.

Smith led a team of Justice Department investigators and ultimately determined he would bring charges against Trump in the Mar-a-Lago documents case and another related to the president’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021.

Smith will sit across from Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), one of Congress’s most vocal critics of the prosecutor’s work.

Grassley’s team has titled the hearing “Oversight of Jack Smith’s Abuse of Authority and the Targeting of Republicans.”

He has repeatedly released documents he has obtained about Smith’s investigation, including toll records showing that Smith reviewed call logs of some senators who spoke with Trump on Jan. 6. Smith did not have access to the content of the calls.

Democrats framed the hearing as a chance for Smith to defend a well-founded investigation.

“Donald Trump spent months spreading the Big Lie and pressuring election officials & Members of Congress to help overturn the 2020 election. Jack Smith investigated this criminal effort. Finally on Tuesday, Mr. Smith will be able to tell the Senate Judiciary Committee his story,” Senate Judiciary Democrats wrote on the social platform X.

Smith testified before the House Judiciary Committee in January.

In closed-door testimony in December, Smith defended bringing the cases.

“If asked whether to prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether the president was a Republican or Democrat,” Smith said in his prepared remarks.

“The decision to bring charges against President Trump was mine, but the basis for those charges rests entirely with President Trump and his actions, as alleged in the indictments returned by grand juries in two different districts,” he added.