Jack Smith accused by Republicans of running ‘corrupt operation’ in Trump investigation

Former special counsel Jack Smith faced fierce accusations from Republican senators on Tuesday while testifying before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, where he was charged with turning the federal investigation against Donald Trump into a political weapon, as the New York Post reports.

The committee’s chairman, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, accused Smith of running a “corrupt operation” that “undermined the rule of law and threatened our very political institutions.” “Mr. Smith’s operation was a partisan weapon that broke the rules, lied to the court and acted in bad faith,” Grassley said. He pointed to the irony that, while Smith prosecuted Trump for mishandling classified information, his team left a classified object unsecured, itself causing a security breach.

Smith defended himself in his opening statement, saying he did not regret his decisions: “I stand by my decisions as Special Counsel, including the decision to indict President Trump… Our investigation developed evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump committed serious crimes against our nation. If I were asked to prosecute a former president on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether that president was a Republican or a Democrat.”

Smith was appointed special counsel in November 2022 by former Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Trump in two cases: the retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and the attempt to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election. His team brought a total of 41 federal criminal charges against Trump. The Mar-a-Lago case was dismissed by a federal judge in Florida who ruled Smith’s appointment unlawful, while the 2020 election case ended after Trump returned to office in 2024.

Committee Democrats stood by Smith. The ranking minority member, Dick Durbin of Illinois, recalled the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol and said that “the ongoing smears against Mr. Smith are petty, personal and political — nothing but a smokescreen.”