Jack Smith defends Trump prosecutions at Senate Judiciary Committee hearing
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The Facts
- Jack Smith testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about his investigations of Donald Trump.
- Smith defended his decision to bring criminal charges against Trump.
- Smith said his charging decisions were made without regard to Trump’s political affiliation or candidacy.
- Republican lawmakers accused Smith of abusing his authority in the Trump investigations.
- Smith’s cases concerned Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and classified documents kept at Mar-a-Lago.
- The two federal criminal cases against Trump were dismissed before trial.
- Smith said he would not be silenced by threats of prosecution.
Context
What cases did Smith bring against Trump?
Smith brought federal cases concerning Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after leaving office. infobae Washington Post Al Jazeera Online CNN
What did Smith say in response to Republican accusations?
Smith said the charging decisions were driven by evidence, not Trump’s political identity, and said he stood by his decisions as special counsel. Aol CBS News Al Jazeera Online U.S. News & World R…
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
- Where Left and Right agree
- Both cases collapsed before trial, meaning neither Trump's alleged conduct nor Smith's charging theory was ever tested before a jury.
- Where Left and Right split
- Trump facing accountability for conduct ordinary defendants would answer for, or a prosecutor's surveillance reach sweeping up journalists and sources.
- Why they won’t converge
- The divide is trust-in-institution: whether Smith's prosecutorial discretion and surveillance methods deserve deference or suspicion doesn't hinge on the dismissed cases' facts but on priors about DOJ independence from politics.
- Watch for
- Whether Grassley's committee substantiates or the whistleblower disclosures are corroborated that nearly 50 journalists' communications were swept into Smith's 'Arctic Frost' digital dragnet would test the surveillance claims driving the right's accountability push.New York Post
How left and right read it
No one should be safer from the criminal law because they were on a ballot, and that is precisely the principle Smith defended when he said his charging decisions ignored Trump's party and candidacy. The conduct at issue — attempting to overturn the 2020 results, classified documents held at Mar-a-Lago — is the kind ordinary defendants answer for, yet both cases died before any jury weighed them. So the hearing turned on gotchas and basketball trivia rather than evidence. Smith said threats of prosecution will not silence him. They shouldn't.
“Sen. Eric Schmitt thought he caught Jack Smith in a lie. Instead, he outed him as a fan of former Iowa Hawkeyes star Caitlin Clark.” — POLITICO
A prosecutor's reach should be measured by whom it sweeps up, not only by whom it charges, which is why disclosures to the committee's chairman about journalists' messages with government sources landing in Smith's digital dragnet matter more than his insistence that party played no part in his decisions. Both cases died before trial. So the charging theory was never tested, yet the surveillance was real — and Congress should press the accountability that testimony alone cannot deliver.
“The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman's office received whistleblower disclosures that revealed almost 50 journalists had their messages with government sources caught in Smith's digital dragnet.” — New York Post
The receipts — all 100 sources
Wire services (12)
Independent coverage (50)
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