Jack Smith Defends Prosecutions Against Trump in House Hearing

Former special counsel Jack Smith told House lawmakers on Jan. 22 that he is standing by his decision to prosecute President Donald Trump in two cases and defended a decision to obtain the phone records of senators as part of the Arctic Frost investigation.

“No one should be above the law in our country, and the law required that [the president] be held to account,” Smith said during his opening remarks before the House Judiciary Committee, echoing previous comments he made publicly about the case after leaving his position. “So that is what I did.”

He said that he is “not a politician and has no partisan loyalties,” and signaled that he would have brought charges if Trump was a Democrat.

Smith was named as the special counsel under then-Attorney General Merrick Garland in a Washington case that alleged that Trump illegally sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election and in a Florida case accusing the president of illegally retaining classified documents. Trump pleaded not guilty in both, accusing Smith and the Biden administration of engaging in politics to harm his 2024 reelection bid.

During the Arctic Frost investigation, Smith acquired toll records of Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska.). The records of Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) were also obtained in the probe, lawmakers and Department of Justice (DOJ) officials have said.

When asked about the Arctic Frost probe by Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.), Smith defended the decision to pursue it, saying that it was in line with DOJ policy and that obtaining phone records was a standard practice during investigations of that size.

“We wanted to conduct a thorough investigation of the matters that [were] assigned to me, including attempts to interfere with the lawful transfer of power,” Smith told lawmakers.

“[It was designed to obtain] toll records to understand the scope of that conspiracy, who they were seeking to coerce, who they were seeking to influence, who was seeking to help them,” he said.

This is not the first time that Smith has spoken before Congress. Last month, he gave testimony behind closed doors to the House Judiciary Committee regarding the Trump cases and the Arctic Frost investigation.

During the Jan. 22 hearing, Republican lawmakers alleged that Smith was acting in a partisan manner and suggested that he was being used by the Biden administration for political purposes.

“Jack Smith wasn’t a special counsel,” Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas), a Judiciary Committee member, wrote in a post on X. “He was a political operative using the DOJ to take out Biden’s top rival. That abuse of power shattered trust in America’s justice system.”

Democrats on the panel praised Smith for his work and said Republicans are leading a partisan hearing on behalf of Trump.

“You are in the fight for justice, in the rule of law, for the long haul,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the Judiciary Committee’s ranking Democrat member. “And I thank you for that. We should all try to follow your example.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.