Jack Smith testifies before House Judiciary Committee about his Trump probes
Former special counsel Jack Smith told lawmakers Wednesday he believed his investigations had gathered proof beyond a reasonable doubt that would have led to President Donald Trump's convictions on charges of mishandling classified documents and seeking to unlawfully overturn his 2020 election loss, if he had not won last year's presidential election.
Smith's testimony came during a closed-door hearing in front of the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee as part of the panel's probe into Smith's investigations.
Smith told the committee that his actions were "based on what the facts and the law required."
"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, according to his prepared remarks.
Smith charged Trump with undertaking a "criminal scheme" to overturn the results of the 2020 election in order to remain in power, and with mishandling classified materials after leaving the White House in 2021. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges in both cases, before both cases were dropped following Trump's reelection due to the Justice Department's long-standing policy barring the prosecution of a sitting president.
"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," Smith said in his prepared remarks.
"I made my decisions in the investigation without regard to President Trump's political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election. We took actions based on what the facts and the law required -- the very lesson I learned early in my career as a prosecutor," he said.
Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, had requested Smith's testimony as well as documents and communications pertaining to his probes.
"As the Committee continues its oversight, your testimony is necessary to understand the full extent to which the Biden-Harris Justice Department weaponized federal law enforcement," Jordan wrote in a letter to Smith in October.
