{"id":45672,"date":"2025-12-18T13:41:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T21:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=45672"},"modified":"2025-12-18T13:41:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T21:41:15","slug":"facts-and-the-law-jack-smith-defends-trump-prosecution-in-closed-congressional-testimony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/12\/18\/facts-and-the-law-jack-smith-defends-trump-prosecution-in-closed-congressional-testimony\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Facts and the Law\u2019: Jack Smith Defends Trump Prosecution In Closed Congressional Testimony"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Jim Saksa<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

December 17, 2025 (DemocracyDocket.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Former
Former Special Counsel Jack Smith returns from a break to testify during a closed-door deposition before the House Judiciary Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on December 17, 2025. Smith was appointed independent special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 to oversee two criminal investigations into former President Donald Trump\u2019s role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and mishandling of classified documents. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur 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,\u201d Smith said in his opening remarks, according to excerpts obtained by Democracy Docket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The panel subpoenaed Smith earlier this month amid escalating Republican attacks on Smith\u2019s independent investigation into Trump\u2019s election subversion efforts and mishandling of classified documents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October, with Attorney General Pam Bondi looking on, Trump called<\/a> Smith a \u201ccriminal,\u201d during an Oval Office press conference, urging the Department of Justice (DOJ) to \u201clook into\u201d him. Earlier this month, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who was Trump\u2019s criminal defense lawyer in the case, alleged<\/a> that Smith had improperly withheld evidence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith requested to testify publicly, but House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) refused. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his statement, Smith asserted that Trump was charged despite \u2014 not because of \u2014 the politics involved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI made my decisions in the investigation without regard to President Trump\u2019s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election,\u201d he said. \u201cWe took actions based on what the facts and the law required \u2014 the very lesson I learned early in my career as a prosecutor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Smith said the decision to charge Trump was his alone, \u201cthe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf 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,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans were incensed after news broke earlier this year that Smith\u2019s investigation obtained phone records of nine GOP lawmakers who were closely involved<\/a> in Trump\u2019s attempt to block the electoral vote count on January 6, 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[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,\u201d Smith said Wednesday. \u201cOver 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\u2019t choose those Members; President Trump did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith also defended the raid on Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago residence, which revealed the president had been improperly storing classified materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur 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,\u201d Smith said. \u201cHe then repeatedly tried to obstruct justice to conceal his continued retention of those documents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith dropped the prosecution shortly after Trump won the presidential election in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45672"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45673,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45672\/revisions\/45673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}