Former special counsel Jack Smith faces House hearing on Trump cases

Former particular counsel Jack Smith will seem on Capitol Hill Thursday for a televised listening to throughout which he’ll face questions from Republicans and Democrats on the Home Judiciary Committee about his two prosecutions of President Donald Trump.

Republicans, led by Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, are anticipated to accuse Smith of submitting politicized legal expenses in opposition to a number one presidential candidate to intrude within the 2024 election.

Smith’s look will mark the second time in as many months that he has answered questions earlier than the Republican-led committee, after giving an eight-hour closed-door deposition in December.

JACK SMITH REQUESTED FOR DEPOSITION TO THE HOUSE JUDICIAL COMMITTEE

Jack Smith, former particular counsel, arrives for closed-door testimony on the Home Judiciary Committee in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, December 17, 2025. (Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures)

Smith has lengthy needed to talk publicly about his work, and Trump, who has mentioned Smith is a “legal” who belongs in jail, mentioned within the Oval Workplace final yr that he needed the identical.

“I might quite see him testify in public as a result of he cannot presumably reply the questions,” Trump had mentioned when he discovered that Smith would first testify behind closed doorways.

Smith’s public listening to will start at 10 a.m. and is a part of the committee’s ongoing investigation into his work as particular counsel.

Republicans have particularly criticized Smith for searching for gag orders in opposition to Trump throughout his presidential marketing campaign, searching for to expedite authorized proceedings and subpoena information and telephone information of tons of of individuals and entities linked to Trump, together with quite a few members of Congress.

Republicans are prone to deliver up the controversial subpoenas for the telephone information, a supply conversant in the listening to instructed Fox Information Digital.

Republicans are additionally prone to elevate questions on Smith’s group approving $20,000 in funds to an FBI supply, often known as a confidential human supply, to collect details about Trump, the supply mentioned.

President Donald Trump. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Pictures)

Smith accused Trump of attempting to illegally overturn the 2020 election and of conserving labeled paperwork, however he dropped each instances after Trump gained the 2024 election, citing a DOJ coverage that daunts the prosecution of sitting presidents.

In his opening assertion for the listening to, obtained by Fox Information Digital, Smith needed to state unequivocally that he stands by his resolution to indict Trump.

“Our investigation uncovered proof past an affordable doubt that President Trump engaged in legal exercise,” Smith mentioned. “If I had been requested whether or not I’d prosecute a former president primarily based on the identical info immediately, I’d accomplish that no matter whether or not that president was a Republican or a Democrat.”

BIDEN DOJ HAS JIM JORDAN’S PHONE RECORDS FOR MORE THAN TWO YEARS

Rep. Jim Jordan leaves a gathering of the Home Republican Convention on the Capitol in Washington, DC on December 10, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Name, Inc by way of Getty Pictures)

In response to Smith’s group, the previous particular counsel plans to emphasise that his expenses had been applicable and that he fastidiously adopted the DOJ handbook, together with the DOJ’s coverage on disrupting elections.

Smith’s group additionally mentioned the previous particular counsel doesn’t plan to reply to questions that might reveal legally protected grand jury info or particulars within the second a part of his newest particular counsel report, which covers his case involving labeled Trump paperwork. Decide Aileen Cannon has sealed that report by means of February.

An ongoing level of competition is that Smith sought telephone information for quite a few Republican senators and members of the Home of Representatives as a part of his investigation into the 2020 election. He has repeatedly defended that call, saying it was not pushed by partisanship.

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“If Donald Trump had chosen to name up some Democratic senators, we’d have gotten toll information for Democratic senators,” Smith mentioned throughout his deposition final month. “So the duty for why this information, why we collected it, lies with Donald Trump.”

The Republicans who had been focused, together with Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., have mentioned the subpoenas violated their constitutional rights due to further layers of immunity the Structure offers to lawmakers.