House Judiciary Committee Releases Jack Smith’s Closed-Door Testimony

The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday released a transcript and video of former special counsel Jack Smith’s closed-door deposition, in which he defended his two prosecutions of President Donald Trump and said he was confident he could have proved the charges, CBS News and NBC News reported.

NBC News said the release consists of a 255-page transcript and more than eight hours of video. Smith had asked to testify publicly, as earlier special counsels have, but the Republican-led committee instead subpoenaed him for a private deposition earlier this month, CBS News reported. The committee, led by Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a Trump ally, is investigating Smith and his former office. Smith’s lawyers have renewed their request for a public hearing, CBS News said.

Smith’s two cases, which NBC News said have since been dismissed, alleged that Trump tried to subvert the transfer of power after the 2020 election and mishandled classified documents after his first term. Trump pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing, NBC News reported. Smith told lawmakers his team found “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” of a “criminal scheme” to overturn the election and that Trump “repeatedly tried to obstruct justice” in the documents case, NBC News reported. In the election case, he said, Trump was “by a large measure the most culpable and most responsible person in this conspiracy,” both outlets reported. CBS News also quoted him saying that the attack at the Capitol “does not happen without him.”

He said he never spoke with then-President Joe Biden or the White House about the investigations, and that then-Attorney General Merrick Garland and other Justice Department officials never suggested he was expected to charge Trump, CBS News reported. He told lawmakers that his team built the election case on “Republicans who put their allegiance to the country before the party.”

Smith also criticized the firing of Justice Department and FBI employees who worked on the cases, calling it “awful” and “contrary to who I think we are as a country,” CBS News reported. He said he would not be surprised if the Justice Department indicted him, NBC News reported. Since returning to office, Trump has repeatedly called for Smith to be prosecuted, and Republicans in Congress have opened their own probes.

CBS News reported that Smith told the committee his team had determined it had evidence to charge some of Trump’s co-conspirators in the election case but had not made final decisions when Trump won re-election. Smith said Rudy Giuliani, who spoke with his investigators, “disavowed a number of the claims” he had made publicly about the integrity of the 2020 election, CBS News reported.