Jack Smith tells lawmakers his team developed ‘proof beyond a reasonable doubt’ against Trump

Former DOJ Special Counsel Smith Claims “Proof Beyond Reasonable Doubt” of Trump Election Crimes

Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith told lawmakers in a closed-door interview Wednesday that his investigative team had “developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that President Donald Trump criminally conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

During his day-long deposition before the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee, Smith also stated investigators had accrued “powerful evidence” Trump broke the law by hoarding classified documents from his first term at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and by obstructing government efforts to recover those 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, according to portions of his opening statement obtained by The Associated Press. “We took actions based on what the facts and the law required — the very lesson I learned early in my career as a prosecutor.”

Smith emphasized his political impartiality, stating 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 testimony marked lawmakers’ first opportunity to question Smith, albeit in private, about the investigations that led to criminal cases against Trump between his first and second presidential terms. The House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Smith for testimony and documents as part of its probe into Trump investigations during the Biden administration.

Smith’s legal team noted that he had volunteered more than a month before the subpoena to answer questions publicly — an offer Republicans reportedly declined despite Trump expressing support for 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’s 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 election loss and his retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Smith’s team filed charges in both cases but abandoned them after Trump’s election victory last year, citing longstanding Justice Department legal opinions that a sitting president cannot be indicted.

Democrats who emerged from Smith’s closed session claimed the testimony was damaging to Trump and explained why Republicans had opted against a public hearing. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the committee’s top Democrat, suggested Republicans “made an excellent decision” by not allowing public testimony “because had he done so, it would have been absolutely devastating to the president and all the president’s men involved in the insurrectionary activities” of the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.

“Jack Smith has just spent several hours schooling the Judiciary Committee on the professional responsibilities of a prosecutor and the ethical duties of a prosecutor,” Raskin added.

Democratic lawmakers are now demanding that Smith’s testimony and his full investigative report be made public. “The American people should hear for themselves,” said Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y.

Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told reporters he believed the committee had “learned some interesting things” but declined to elaborate on specifics. He reiterated his longstanding position about the investigations, saying simply: “It’s political.”

Smith’s testimony comes amid a broader campaign by the Trump administration against officials who investigated Trump. The Office of Special Counsel, an independent watchdog, announced in August it was investigating Smith, while the White House issued a presidential memorandum aimed at suspending security clearances of lawyers at the firm that provided services to Smith’s team.

Congressional Republicans, with support from current FBI leadership, have sought to discredit the Trump investigations through selective document releases. Recently, they highlighted Smith’s team’s analysis of phone records of select GOP lawmakers around the time of the Capitol insurrection. The records, which showed call metadata but not conversation content, were described by Smith as properly subpoenaed and “relevant to complete a comprehensive investigation” related to Trump’s calls urging lawmakers to delay election certification.

On Tuesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released FBI emails from before the August 2022 Mar-a-Lago search, including one suggesting the FBI’s Washington field office initially didn’t believe probable cause existed to search the property. However, this selective disclosure omitted that agents ultimately found numerous classified and top-secret documents during the search, and that the then-head of the Washington field office later testified that by the search date, the FBI believed probable cause did exist.