By Jim Saksa
December 17, 2025 (DemocracyDocket.com)
Jack Smith, the former special counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice, forcefully defended his federal prosecution of President Donald Trump in a closed-door hearing Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee.
During his remarks, Smith pushed back on GOP efforts to discredit the prosecution as unfairly political, arguing that his work was governed by facts and sound prosecutorial ethics.
“Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power,” Smith said in his opening remarks, according to excerpts obtained by Democracy Docket.
The panel subpoenaed Smith earlier this month amid escalating Republican attacks on Smith’s independent investigation into Trump’s election subversion efforts and mishandling of classified documents.
In October, with Attorney General Pam Bondi looking on, Trump called Smith a “criminal,” during an Oval Office press conference, urging the Department of Justice (DOJ) to “look into” him. Earlier this month, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who was Trump’s criminal defense lawyer in the case, alleged that Smith had improperly withheld evidence.
Smith requested to testify publicly, but House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) refused.
In his statement, Smith asserted that Trump was charged despite — not because of — the politics involved.
“I made my decisions in the investigation without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election,” he 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.”
While Smith said the decision to charge Trump was his alone, “the basis for those charges rests entirely with President Trump and his actions, as alleged in the indictments returned by grand juries in two different districts.”
“If asked whether to prosecute a former President based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether the President was a Republican or Democrat,” he added.
Republicans were incensed after news broke earlier this year that Smith’s investigation obtained phone records of nine GOP lawmakers who were closely involved in Trump’s attempt to block the electoral vote count on January 6, 2021.
“[Phone] records were lawfully subpoenaed and were relevant to complete a comprehensive investigation. January 6 was an attack on the structure of our democracy in which over 100 heroic law enforcement officers were assaulted,” Smith said Wednesday. “Over 160 individuals later pled guilty to assaulting police officers that day. Exploiting that violence, President Trump and his associates tried to call Members of Congress in furtherance of their criminal scheme, urging them to further delay certification of the 2020 election. I didn’t choose those Members; President Trump did.”
Smith also defended the raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, which revealed the president had been improperly storing classified materials.
“Our investigation also developed powerful evidence that showed President Trump willfully retained highly classified documents after he left office in January 2021, storing them at his social club, including in a bathroom and a ballroom where events and gatherings took place,” Smith said. “He then repeatedly tried to obstruct justice to conceal his continued retention of those documents.”
Smith dropped the prosecution shortly after Trump won the presidential election in 2024.
