Jack Smith, the former US justice department special counsel who brought two now-dropped criminal cases against Donald Trump, has defended his investigation before a House of Representatives panel, telling lawmakers that the basis for the prosecutions “rests entirely with President Trump and his actions”.
Smith gave private testimony to the Republican-controlled House judiciary committee following months of disclosures from Trump appointees at the justice department, and Republican lawmakers intended to discredit Smith’s investigation and bolster Trump’s claims that the cases were an abuse of the legal system.
Smith and his team secured indictments in 2023, accusing Trump of illegally retaining classified documents following his first term in office and plotting to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election. Smith dropped both cases after Trump won the 2024 election, citing a justice department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
“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 told the committee, according to excerpts from his opening statement seen by Reuters.
His appearance at the Capitol came after the Republican chair of the House judiciary committee, Jim Jordan of Ohio, subpoenaed Smith for a closed-door deposition. Smith had requested a public hearing.
“This was political. This was about going after the Republican party and most importantly it was about going after our candidate for president, President Trump,” Jordan told Fox News’s Fox and Friends.
Speaking to reporters outside the interview room, Democratic lawmakers said Smith’s testimony should have been conducted in public. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the panel’s top Democrat, said a public hearing would have been “absolutely devastating to the president”.
“He’s answered every single question to the satisfaction of any reasonable-minded person in that room,” Raskin said.
Democratic depresentative, Pramila Jayapal of Washington, said Smith told lawmakers that Trump’s conduct in seeking to overturn