Former Special Counsel Jack Smith appeared on Capitol Hill on Wednesday for closed-door testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.
Republicans on the panel summoned Smith as part of their investigation into what they characterize as partisan and politically motivated federal prosecutions of President Donald Trump.
Smith did not speak publicly as he arrived for the deposition but was briefly approached by Fox News congressional reporter Bill Melugin outside the Capitol.
“Do you have any regrets about the way your prosecutions with the president were handled? What do you plan to tell the committee?” Melugin asked.
However, Smith ignored his question along with those from other reporters, though at one point, someone could be heard shouting: “How about you respond, Jack!”
During his session with the Judiciary Committee, Smith defended his prosecutions of the then-former 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,” he said, per CNN.
Smith was appointed as Special Counsel in 2022 by Joe Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Trump, just one day after Trump announced his bid for the 2024 presidential election. A few months later, in August 2022, Biden ordered federal agents armed with assault weapons to raid Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
In June 2023, Smith indicted Trump on 37 federal counts in Miami related to the unlawful storage of presidential records at his Mar-a-Lago estate, which was secured by Secret Service agents.
Trump faced 31 counts under the Espionage Act for the willful retention of national defense information, along with six additional process crimes linked to his communications with his lawyer.
In a separate case in Washington, D.C., Special Counsel Jack Smith indicted former President Trump on four counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
Last summer, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed Smith’s case regarding classified documents due to issues with the appointment and funding of the special counsel. Smith’s case in D.C. was also dismissed after Trump won the 2024 presidential election.
In October, Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, joined by a coalition of Republican senators and one congressman, sent a formal letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi referring Smith to the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility and two state bar associations for investigation. The letter accuses the former special counsel of serious professional misconduct that could warrant disbarment, The New York Post reported.
“As part of Jack Smith’s weaponized witch hunt, the Biden DOJ issued subpoenas to several telecommunications companies in 2023 regarding our cell phone records, gaining access to the time, recipient, duration, and location of calls placed on our devices from January 4, 2021, to January 7, 2021,” the letter read. “We have yet to learn of any legal predicate for the Biden Department of Justice issuing subpoenas to obtain these cell phone records.”
The referral follows reports that Smith’s office spied on Republican members of Congress during that same period, using what’s known as a toll analysis — a process that allows investigators to obtain metadata such as call duration, recipient information, and location data from personal devices.
Lawmakers were not notified, nor did they consent to having their private communications accessed.
Joining Blackburn were Sens. Lindsey Graham, Tommy Tuberville, Dan Sullivan, Ron Johnson, Bill Hagerty, Josh Hawley, and Cynthia Lummis, along with Rep. Mike Kelly. Together, they are demanding that Smith face investigation by the DOJ and disciplinary action from the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility and the New York Attorney Grievance Committee, where Smith is licensed to practice law.
