Jack Smith, the former special counsel who led several high-profile criminal investigations into Donald Trump, has asked congressional leaders to allow him to testify openly as the GOP investigates his past work.
In a letter to the heads of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, Smith’s lawyers said they sought the public testimony route “because of the many mischaracterizations of Mr. Smith’s investigation into President Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents and role in attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, has voiced his support for public testimony from Smith.
“To this day, [the Department of Justice] is fighting to prevent the release of the special counsel’s full report regarding this criminal activity,” Raskin wrote in a letter to committee chairman Jim Jordan. “I know you will agree that the American people, whose tax dollars funded these investigations, have a compelling interest—indeed, a right—in hearing directly from Mr. Smith on both investigations of the sitting President of the United States. “
Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Thursday that the committees are focused on gathering facts first.
“Jack Smith certainly has a lot of answering to do, but first Congress needs to have all the facts before it,” Grassley told CNN in a statement. “Hearings should follow once the investigative basis is established, and therefore I am actively working with the DOJ and the FBI to gather all relevant records that Mr. Smith had years to become privy to.”
Smith led two investigations into Trump, one about his alleged mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and preventing their return after leaving office, and another centered around Trump’s attempt to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Both investigations led to criminal charges against Trump, who has pleaded not guilty, denied any wrongdoing and has long claimed the charges were politically biased.
In 2024, a federal court dismissed the docket case, prompting prosecutors to appeal at the last minute.
When Trump was re-elected, Smith moved to drop both the remaining election case and the appeals cases, given the lack of precedent for prosecuting a sitting president and a Supreme Court ruling that Trump was entitled to broad immunity for actions he took in office.
Since then, in keeping with Justice Department tradition, Smith has largely avoided the spotlight, refraining from talking about the charges despite continued GOP criticism of his work.
In August, the Office of the Special Counsel launched an investigation into Smith over allegations that he violated the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from engaging in political activity.
In the face of congressional and special counsel investigations, Smith has become more vocal.
He sharply criticized the Trump administration’s regular attacks on judges and prosecutors who have ruled against it.
“I think the attacks on public servants, particularly non-partisan public servants – I think it has a cost to our country that’s incalculable, and I think we – it’s hard to communicate to people how much it’s going to cost us,” Smith said during a lecture at University College London’s Faculty of Law earlier this month.
He has called claims that his prosecutions were influenced by bias “ridiculous”.