GOP's Attack on Special Counsel Jack Smith's Backfires

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said the former prosecutor made him “want to throw up in my mouth.” And Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) ” said Smith’s probe was “the most egregious abuse of power in the history of the Department of Justice.”

It was GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri's whose questioning backfired. He laid the breadcrumbs to allegedly show that Smith committed perjury. Sen Schmitt accused Smith of attending an Atlanta Hawks home game in February 2024. These were breadcrumbs to allegedly show how Smith had perjured himself and was involved in a conspiracy with local Atlanta prosecutors to ensnare Mr. Trump.

During his testimony, Mr. Smith appeared deeply confused by Mr. Schmitt’s question. “I definitely did not go to a Hawks game,” he said. “I’m sure of that.”

The Big Picture

The Senator had confused the Atlanta Hawks with the Iowa Hawkeyes at the University of Maryland the game which Smith attended. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) fact-checked Schmitt in real-time, confirming the date of the Iowa-Maryland game and suggested that her colleagues’ reliance on “false information based on confusion about the name of a team” warranted an apology.

This courtroom-esque drama became the story, with GOP accusations against the former special counsel as its casualty.

This hearing grew from the committee's Arctic Frost probe of Smith's acquisition of telecommunications, financial and other Republican-related records. The archive records subpoenas to AT&T, Verizon and Lumen for information identifying targets. The committee held a Feb. 10 hearing on carriers' responses and announced more Arctic Frost hearings for 2026.

Smith's election-interference and classified-documents cases against Donald Trump were a second driver; Smith said he developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt of serious crimes. A July referral by House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan for Justice Department review of Smith's prior testimony raised the stakes, according to Spectrum News.

What They're Saying

Smith said: "I will not be silenced by continued threats of prosecution." Grassley said: "a partisan weapon that broke the rules." Durbin said: "conspiracy theories just keep mushrooming."

Smith said his office obtained non-content toll records for members after consulting the Public Integrity Section, and said the Jan. 6 evening records corroborated evidence Trump and co-conspirators sought to exploit violence to delay proceedings. Grassley said Smith breached constitutional parameters and failed to require his staff to comply with relevant rules, and Smith said, "Yes, we acquired financial information." Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-LA) asked if only Republicans were targeted; Smith said the toll records sought were Republicans because they were relevant.

Smith cited nearly 30 years of service under Republican and Democratic administrations and said politics plays no role in prosecution decisions. Kennedy interrupted Smith on attorney general notification and said, "Don't please don't filibuster me."

The Bottom Line

Senator Josh Hawley said it was up to the Justice Department to either prosecute Smith for perjury for lying under oath and Senator Eric Schmitt accused Smith of weaponizing the Justice Department against political enemies.

For the administration, Republicans used the session to support politicized-enforcement claims, while Democrats called it retaliation distracting from Trump's conduct. The session follows prior special-counsel oversight hearings involving Robert Mueller, John Durham and Robert Hur, but the record identifies no legislative outcome from those precedents.

For the public and Congress, the dispute centers on safeguards for lawmakers' records, donor financial data and special-counsel oversight before the midterms. Grassley said the Sept. 29 session was not the end of his investigative work, but announced no follow-up date.

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