Jack Smith to testify before Senate Judiciary next week

Former special counsel Jack Smith is due to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday for a public hearing focused on his handling of high-profile investigations into former President Donald Trump. This will be Smith’s second appearance before Congress in connection with his work as the Justice Department special counsel. Smith led the probe that produced indictments tied to classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago and a separate case linked to Trump’s conduct around the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The hearing is being convened by Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who has been a persistent critic of Smith’s decisions. Grassley’s office has circulated documents related to the special counsel’s work and labeled the session “Oversight of Jack Smith’s Abuse of Authority and the Targeting of Republicans.” Among documents released by Grassley were toll records indicating Smith reviewed call logs for some senators who spoke with Trump on Jan. 6; those records, according to Grassley, did not include the contents of the calls.

Democrats on the Judiciary Committee characterized the proceeding as an opportunity for Smith to explain and defend the investigation, which they say was grounded in allegations of criminal efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Senate Judiciary Democrats posted on social media that Smith would be able to recount his work examining those efforts. Smith has previously testified before the House Judiciary Committee in January and also provided closed-door testimony in December defending his prosecutorial choices.

In prepared remarks earlier in the process, Smith asserted that he would reach the same charging decisions regardless of a defendant’s political affiliation and said that the indictments stemmed from actions alleged by grand juries in two districts. The Tuesday hearing will give senators a public forum to press him about those conclusions and the conduct of the special counsel’s office.