Jack Smith, the former special counsel who had the audacity to investigate Donald Trump and actually secure two indictments, appeared before the Senate judiciary committee on Wednesday for a hearing that Republicans treated less like oversight and more like a group therapy session for their unresolved feelings about the 2020 election.
Among the more surreal moments: Republican senator Darline Graham, appointed to replace her late brother Lindsey Graham after his death in July, used her questioning time to accuse Smith of adding "stress" to her brother's life through subpoenas. The South Carolina senator told Smith he should be "ashamed" of himself and that it made her "sick" to think that subpoenas of Lindsey Graham's phone records would have stressed him out.
"Do you really believe that Lindsey was going to destroy evidence that was not even in his possession?" Darline Graham asked.
Smith responded that Lindsey Graham was "a patriot" and was not the target of his investigation. "He likely would have been a witness in our case," Smith added - a detail that apparently did not make anyone feel less sick.
The hearing featured a parade of Republicans accusing Smith of perjury and conducting a political witch-hunt, despite the two indictments against Trump later being dismissed when he took office. Josh Hawley launched in immediately: "Your investigation, so-called, your prosecution, so-called, was nothing other than an attempt to interfere politically in a presidential election in the United States of America. You twice indicted a presidential candidate."
Smith pushed back on Hawley's claims about obtaining records from the National Archives, including text messages between White House officials and 44 members of Congress. "That was a request for White House phones," Smith said, noting those phones happened to have congressional contacts. He also corrected Hawley's timeline: "It was also inaccurate to state that our indictment happened on 2 October. We indicted that case in August [2023]." Smith noted he and his team consulted with the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, who "ultimately concurred" they had "followed the election year sensitivities policy."
Ted Cruz, never one to miss a theatrical opportunity, admonished Smith for weaponizing the Justice Department to subpoena Republican members of Congress and conservative organizations. "Is it a crime to be a Republican?" Cruz asked. "Absolutely not," Smith replied. Cruz then escalated, telling Smith: "Javert from Les Mis would look at you with astonishment." Smith, presumably, did not break into song.
Katie Britt repeatedly asked Smith to confirm or deny whether Timothy Thibault, a former FBI agent who oversaw the Arctic Frost investigation, had engaged in political bias - even though Thibault retired from the FBI months before Smith was made special counsel. Thibault denied accusations that political partisanship impacted his work.
When Thom Tillis, the outgoing Republican senator from North Carolina, asked if Smith would have changed anything about his investigations, Smith offered a reflective answer: he learned that confining comments to the courtroom meant "people can unfairly malign your team and unfairly malign you and your case." He added: "There are things being put out daily that are patently untrue... I do agree that prosecutors in the future need to learn to be able to communicate to the outside world because I believe strongly we did our investigation the right way, but I limited myself in who I talked to about that."
Chris Coons, a Democrat, asked Smith about working with Republicans during his investigation. Smith said it was "very hard" to understand why his probe was considered partisan when the "strongest witnesses" were Republicans like Rusty Bowers, a former Arizona state representative, and former vice-president Mike Pence. "The criminal scheme we investigated was predicated upon Donald Trump preying on party loyalty. He preyed on party loyalty and fear," Smith said.
Cory Booker, visibly frustrated, accused Republicans of "a farce" and "gaslighting" the public by "continuing to perpetuate the big lie in America that Donald Trump was somehow cheated out of the 2020 election." He said: "This big lie has gone on [long] enough. We have people who are serving at the highest offices in the land that repeat the big lie... And today's farce - today's gaslighting - cannot obscure the mountain of evidence and what Americans saw with their own eyes." Booker lamented the toll on Smith and his family, but also on Americans struggling with high gas prices, lack of health insurance coverage, and childcare costs. "What do the Republicans in control of Congress do with their closing statement before an election? They carry out the big lie. They persecute prosecutors. They do Trump's bidding. They choose Trump over truth, corruption and crimes over the constitution, and I've had enough of it," Booker said. "This hearing is a farce. And I'm sorry for what you and your family are enduring as a result."
Smith stood by his findings throughout, saying his investigations found "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" that Trump engaged in criminal activity. He defended the legality of procuring call toll records, explained multiple times what they are and aren't, and outlined the persistent attacks he and former colleagues have faced from lawmakers and the president since he prosecuted Trump. Democrats called the hearing a "farce" and blasted their colleagues for peddling "the Big Lie."
Meanwhile, in Washington, Trump met with several AI company executives at the White House alongside Republican House speaker Mike Johnson. Attendees included OpenAI's Sam Altman, Anthropic's Dario Amodei, Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Nvidia's Jensen Huang. Trump said there "was a lot of commonality in this room" and that "tremendous self-regulation" should be the path forward for AI development, rather than greater congressional oversight - a stance he previously branded a "hoax." He also said the US "can't stifle" AI as he unveiled a new tool to streamline federal government information.
On datacenters, Trump insisted the structures - which house thousands of energy-intensive servers - "are going to be very popular," despite frequent polling showing an overwhelming majority of Americans do not approve of more datacenter construction in their communities. "The areas with datacenters have become very rich," Trump claimed, without citing evidence. "People have become very rich. Their taxes have gone down, not up, and a lot of good things have happened." In fact, several areas with datacenter development have raised concerns about water quality, noise pollution, and potential impact on electricity bills.
Trump also used the opportunity - now a little more than a month away from the midterm elections - to repeat his claim that the war with Iran will be over "very soon," despite another week of stalled negotiations between Washington and Tehran via mediators. "They're failing very badly," the president said. "They will not have a nuclear weapon. And oil prices are going to be tumbling down, just like they were before." He again referred to the conflict as a "little excursion." The war is now in its seventh month and has caused a global energy crisis that has seen the average price of a gallon of gas increase by a dollar.
In other Senate news, Republican Mike Lee of Utah blocked a bipartisan bill that would have prevented Trump from demolishing the Kennedy Center without congressional approval. Lee objected when Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley asked the Senate to pass the Protecting Presidential Memorials Act by unanimous consent. The bill, co-written with Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, would have banned the demolition of any presidential memorial designated by Congress, including the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, unless lawmakers explicitly approved it. "First, he destroyed its programming, and now, he wants to destroy the building itself," Merkley wrote in a statement. "All because the law says Trump can't put his name on the building." He called the president's threats "straight out of the authoritarian playbook." Murkowski, who chairs the appropriations subcommittee that funds the center, said last week that lawmakers had authorized and funded substantial renovation work, but "what was not authorized is a demolition of the Kennedy Center."
Smith's hearing before the Senate judiciary committee has now ended. A recap is forthcoming, though the phrase "recap" implies something coherent happened.