Former special counsel Jack Smith told Congress on Thursday that President Trump is a criminal worthy of conviction, brushing aside Republican accusations that he ran an unethical prosecution in pursuit of one goal — to prevent Mr. Trump from reclaiming the White House.
Mr. Smith testified to the House Judiciary Committee in an event that promised high drama but ultimately low stakes, with his claims of evidence and declarations of guilt relegated to legal oblivion by the American voter.
Mr. Smith specifically blamed Mr. Trump for the mob that swarmed the Capitol on in 2021, saying the president “is the person who caused Jan. 6.”
He called it an “unprecedented criminal scheme to block the peaceful transfer of power” and left open the chance that the charges could be revived when Mr. Trump leaves office.
“I stand by my decisions as special counsel, including the decision to bring charges against President Trump,” Mr. Smith said. “Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in criminal activity.”
Mr. Smith had won two indictments against the president, one stemming from classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago after Mr. Trump’s first term and the other related to his behavior surrounding the 2020 election.
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“No one should be above the law in this country, and the law required that he be held to account,” Mr. Smith said.
He said he approached his job with impartiality, insisting he had “no partisan loyalties.”
Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, though, said that was tough to square with his pursuit of Mr. Trump, which involved pushing for a trial before the 2024 election and, when that wasn’t going to happen, rushing to get anti-Trump information made part of the record before the election.
“It was always about politics,” Mr. Jordan said. “The good news is the American people saw through it.”
Mr. Jordan also used Mr. Smith to puncture former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Jan. 6 investigative committee for its use of former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson.
Ms. Hutchinson famously testified in a prime-time congressional hearing that Mr. Trump lunged across the seat of his vehicle to try to grab the steering wheel and go to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The others in the vehicle said that never happened.
Mr. Smith danced around the issue, admitting that his team talked with someone in the car who said the incident never happened, but still saying he was considering using Ms. Hutchinson as a witness in his criminal case against the president.
Mr. Jordan said that undercut Mr. Smith’s claims of impartiality.
“That says it all. That’s the degree the left and Democrats were willing to go to get President Trump,” he said. “Everybody knows she was making it up.”
Rep. Russell Frey, South Carolina Republican, marveled at Mr. Smith’s attempt to get a trial just five months after winning an indictment on the 2020 election case.
“If you get a traffic ticket in Washington D.C. you’re not going to trial in five months, but you want the former president of the United States to have a trial date, with 13 million pages of documents, within five months,” the congressman said. “It was a political hit job.”
Mr. Trump was apparently watching the proceedings and took to social media to offer his thoughts.
“Deranged Jack Smith is being DECIMATED before Congress,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “Jack Smith is a deranged animal, who shouldn’t be allowed to practice Law. If he were a Republican, his license would be taken away from him, and far worse!”
Mr. Trump said he hoped Attorney General Pam Bondi was “looking at what he’s done.”
Mr. Smith declined to comment on the president’s comments.
Mr. Smith was appointed special counsel by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland on Nov. 18, 2022 — three days after Mr. Trump officially announced he would make a 2024 run at the White House.
Mr. Trump was seeking to unseat President Biden, Mr. Garland’s boss.
A federal judge in Florida ruled Mr. Smith was improperly appointed and could not serve. He was appealing that ruling at the time the election short-circuited his efforts.
Republicans mocked Mr. Smith for being unable to recall who swore him in as the special counsel.
“I know I took the oath of office. I don’t recall who swore me in,” he told incredulous lawmakers.
He also said the disqualification in Florida did not affect his continuing to lead the other case in Washington.
In the audience on Thursday were some of the U.S. Capitol Police officers present during the mayhem of Jan. 6 who have been vocal in blaming Mr. Trump for what they went through.
Rep. Troy Nehls, Texas Republican, told them they’d been bamboozled.
“You were all unprepared to deal with that day, and that’s because your leadership failed to share its intelligence with you,” he told them. “It was their fault. It was not President Trump.”
After a signal of disapproval from former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, Mr. Nehls told him: “You need medication.”
The exchange between the two men drew a rebuke from Mr. Jordan.
Many of the Republicans who criticized Mr. Smith for his zealous prosecution were met with their own past statements and social media posts criticizing the Jan. 6 mob and calling for charges, offered by Democrats who called Mr. Smith the paragon of a prosecutor.
“I think you’re a great American,” said Rep. Steve Cohen, Tennessee Democrat.
Before Thursday’s testimony, Mr. Smith sat for a closed-door deposition with the Judiciary Committee in December.
He begged for the chance to testify publicly, and Mr. Jordan agreed to allow it.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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