Jack Smith defended his Trump prosecutions before Congress on Thursday and rejected claims that his investigations were politically driven. The former special counsel used his first public testimony to restate his case that President Donald Trump broke the law and would have been convicted if not for Justice Department rules barring prosecution of a sitting president.
Smith appeared before the House Judiciary Committee in a hearing that unfolded as a direct confrontation between Republicans seeking to discredit his work and Democrats backing his decisions to bring two federal indictments against Trump. Both cases were dropped after Trump won the 2024 election.
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“I made my decisions without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs or candidacy in the 2024 election,” Smith said in his opening statement. “President Trump was charged because the evidence established that he willfully broke the law. The very laws he took an oath to uphold.”
Smith led the Justice Department’s special counsel office from 2022 to 2025, overseeing investigations into Trump’s handling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He withdrew both cases after Trump returned to office, citing longstanding department policy.
Smith restates core findings
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., pressed Smith to confirm what his investigation concluded about Trump’s conduct after the 2020 election.
Jayapal asked whether Trump attempted to manufacture fraudulent slates of electors in seven states he lost. Smith said yes. She asked whether Trump pressured state officials to ignore certified vote counts. Smith said yes. She asked whether Trump pushed Justice Department officials to block certification of the election. Smith replied: “He did.”
“He even privately admitted that he lost the election, correct?,” Jayapal asked Smith.
“Yes,” he replied. “He said, quote, ‘It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election, you have to fight like hell.’ And he said, ‘Can you believe I lost to this F’ing guy?’”
Smith said his team assembled “overwhelming evidence” and that he stood by the charging decisions.
“If asked whether to prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether that President was a Republican or a Democrat,” he said. “No one should be above the law in our country, and the law required that he be held to account.”
Republicans target subpoenas and tactics
Republicans focused their questioning on investigative steps they argue crossed constitutional lines, including subpoenas for phone metadata tied to nine Republican lawmakers.
“They got my phone records for two and a half years. Even the Democrats said this was wrong,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
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In 2023, Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office indicted then-former President Donald Trump on 40 counts related to mishandling classified documents.
Smith said the records were essential to tracking phone calls made from the White House to members of Congress during Trump’s effort to delay certification on Jan. 6. He emphasized that the records did not reveal the content of any calls.
“My office didn’t spy on anyone,” Smith said.
Rep. Kevin Kiley cited court reversals involving some of Smith’s legal moves. “Do you believe that you made any mistakes? Do you have any regrets as to how you conducted this investigation,” he asked Smith.
“If I have any regret, it would be not expressing enough appreciation for my staff who work so hard in these investigations,” Smith said. “These people sacrificed endlessly and endured way too much for just doing their job.”
“So no mistakes. There’s that humility,” Kiley replied.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., responded sharply. “My Republican colleagues are a joke. History will harshly judge them. You did everything right, sir,” he told Smith.
Trump posts social media attack during testimony
As Smith testified, Trump posted on Truth Social calling him a “deranged animal,” accusing him of destroying lives, and urging Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate him.
“The whole thing was a Democrat scam,” Trump wrote. “A big price should be paid.”
Smith did not respond directly to Trump’s post but warned about the consequences of failing to hold powerful figures accountable.
“If we do not hold the most powerful people in our society to the same standards of the rule of law, then it can be catastrophic,” he said. “Because if they don’t have to follow the law, it’s very easy to understand why people would think they don’t have to follow the law as well.”
Smith also criticized Trump’s mass pardons for hundreds of violent Capitol rioters. “I do not understand why you would mass-pardon people who assaulted police officers,” he said.
Limits on what Smith could address
Smith said court orders restricted what he could say about the classified documents case, which remains under seal by order of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon. Trump’s lawyers asked this week that the report on that case be permanently blocked from release.
Smith acknowledged that secrecy rules also prevented him from discussing grand jury material or confidential sources.
Republicans suggested they could refer Smith for prosecution if they believed he violated those restrictions or obstructed congressional oversight.
The committee has already referred one of Smith’s deputies, Thomas Windom, to the Justice Department over similar claims. Windom has denied wrongdoing.
Asked whether he feared prosecution, Smith replied: “I believe they will do everything in their power to do that, because they’ve been ordered to by the president.”
Hearing ends without new evidence
Smith’s testimony mirrored much of what he previously told lawmakers in a closed-door deposition last month. Republicans offered no new evidence of misconduct and relied largely on rehashing long-standing political grievances tied to the Trump investigations.
Four former police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 attended the hearing: Aquilino Gonell, Harry Dunn, Daniel Hodges, and Michael Fanone. A brief shouting exchange broke out in the audience during a recess.
Outside the hearing room, CNN reported spotting Stewart Rhodes, the former Oath Keepers leader freed from prison last year after Trump commuted his sentence. There is no public record that Rhodes obtained court permission to return to the Capitol, a condition previously imposed by a judge.
Smith remained reserved throughout the day, answering in measured terms even as Republicans accused him of participating in a Democratic conspiracy.
Asked directly whether he acted as a political operative, Smith replied: “No.”
