GOP’s Schmitt calls Jack Smith ‘dirtbag’; former special counsel says Trump should’ve been convicted
by Stephen Dinan · The Washington TimesFormer special counsel Jack Smith vowed not to be “silenced” by threats of prosecution and doubled down Tuesday on his assertion that President Trump should have been convicted of felonies.
Mr. Smith took his stand as he faced down some of the senators whose phone records he obtained in his quest to put Mr. Trump behind bars.
Republicans said Mr. Smith should be disbarred and prosecuted for past answers to Congress, where he failed to disclose that he had obtained the contents of some lawmakers’ communications with White House officials — potentially crossing constitutional lines.
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“You may think you’re the hero in this story, but let me tell you, you’re the villain,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt, Missouri Republican. “You will go down as a total dirtbag.”
Aside from the jabs, the four-hour hearing lacked major drama — though the threat of prosecution hung over Mr. Smith’s appearance.
In testimony to the House last year, he told lawmakers that while he sought “toll” records from their phones, showing whom they called or texted, he didn’t seek the contents of their communications.
But the Justice Department, his former boss, revealed that he did obtain some of those records anyway, because they were on administration staffers’ phones that Mr. Smith sought.
Republicans said Mr. Smith knew he was playing a semantic game when he denied seeking the records.
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And when he sought the phone toll records, he didn’t tell the judge who signed the nondisclosure order that they involved members of Congress.
“You’re a smart guy, that’s pretty clear, but you used your ability and the powers of your office to lie to the court, to lie to Congress, to lie to the American people,” Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican, told Mr. Smith. “It’s the worst abuse of prosecutorial power in the history of the United States.”
Mr. Smith insisted he answered the questions properly and had the blessing of the Justice Department for his actions.
He was tapped as special counsel by the Biden Justice Department and led a two-year probe that resulted in two indictments against Mr. Trump.
One was for mishandling classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s Florida resort home. The other accused Mr. Trump of trying to thwart the transfer of power by inciting the mob that intruded on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
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The Florida case was tossed by a federal judge who said Mr. Smith wasn’t able to be a special prosecutor, and the Jan. 6 case suffered a blow when the Supreme Court ruled a president has broad immunity for official acts.
Both cases were formally canceled after Mr. Trump won the 2024 election.
“Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation,” Mr. Smith said.
Prodded by Sen. Thom Tillis, Mr. Smith did admit one mistake — he said he didn’t do enough publicity. He said he allowed attacks on his case to go unanswered, which cost him public support.
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“I limited myself in who I talked to about that,” he said.
Mr. Tillis, North Carolina Republican, said Mr. Smith actually talked too much.
“You’ve got to win in the courtroom, not public opinion,” Mr. Tillis said. “I think you undermined some of the credibility by going out there and being a spokesperson dealing with the politics of the prosecution.”
Mr. Smith testified privately to the House Judiciary Committee late last year, then again publicly to the committee in January.
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He had asked to come talk publicly to the Senate, too, but Republicans put it off, saying they wanted to complete their investigation.
In the intervening months, Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican and chair of the Senate committee, revealed Mr. Smith’s scooping of lawmakers’ communications.
And on Tuesday, the senator revealed that Mr. Smith’s probe also obtained communications with major news media organizations, including The Washington Times.
Mr. Grassley said the communications were scooped up from “government sources.” That was possibly a reference to the White House phones that Mr. Smith obtained as part of his probe and that were also the source of the communications with members of Congress.
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Mr. Grassley called it a “disgraceful government overreach.”
Sen. John Kennedy, Louisiana Republican, concluded his time with Mr. Smith by saying, “You make me want to throw up in my mouth.”
But some GOP challenges landed badly.
At one point, Mr. Schmitt confronted Mr. Smith with a text message the senator said seemed to show Mr. Smith was in Atlanta around the time that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ case against Mr. Trump was crumbling.
Mr. Schmitt said the texts showed Mr. Smith was at an Atlanta Hawks basketball game on Feb. 3, 2024.
But Mr. Smith said he had no recollection of that.
And when he finally got a good look at the texts, he said what they actually showed was that he was at a University of Iowa women’s basketball game at the University of Maryland.
Caitlin Clark, Iowa’s phenom, was playing, and Mr. Smith wanted to be there.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota Democrat, mocked Mr. Schmitt for mistaking the Hawkeyes with the NBA’s Hawks.
She said Mr. Schmitt owed Mr. Smith an apology.
Mr. Smith, meanwhile, complained of ill treatment of his team of investigators and prosecutors, who have since been drummed out of their government jobs by the Trump administration.
“The fact that they have been targeted illegally, lost their jobs illegally and had their lives turned upside down by this department is an outrage,” he told senators.
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Stephen Dinan
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