Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith claimed on Wednesday that his team of investigators “developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt” against US President Donald Trump that he had criminally conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to portions of his opening statement obtained by The Associated Press.
Smith reportedly told lawmakers in a closed-door interview Wednesday that investigators had accrued “powerful evidence” that Trump broke the law by hoarding classified documents from his first term as president at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and by obstructing government efforts to recover the records.
“I made my decisions in the investigation without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election,” Smith said. “We took actions based on what the facts and the law required — the very lesson I learned early in my career as a prosecutor.”
He said that if asked whether he would “prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether the president was a Republican or Democrat.”
The day-long deposition before the House Judiciary Committee gave lawmakers of both parties their first chance, albeit in private, to question Smith for hours about investigations into Trump that resulted in criminal cases between the Republican president’s first and second terms. Smith was subpoenaed by the Republican-led committee for testimony and documents as part of a GOP investigation into the Trump inquiries during the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden.
The former special counsel cooperated with the congressional demand, though his lawyers noted that he had volunteered more than a month before the subpoena was issued to answer questions publicly before the committee — an overture they said was rebuffed by Republicans. Trump had told reporters that he supported the idea of an open hearing.
“Testifying before this committee, Jack is showing tremendous courage in light of the remarkable and unprecedented retribution campaign against him by this administration and this White House,” Smith lawyer Lanny Breuer told reporters. “Let’s be clear: Jack Smith, a career prosecutor, conducted this investigation based on the facts and based on the law and nothing more.”
Smith was appointed in 2022 to oversee Justice Department investigations into Trump’s efforts to reverse his 2020 loss to Biden and Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Smith’s team filed charges in both investigations but abandoned the cases after Trump was elected t