By Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff and Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Former US special counsel Jack Smith will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, fielding questions about his past investigations into President Donald Trump as the Justice Department ramps up scrutiny of his work.
Republican lawmakers, who have repeatedly blasted Smith for what they see as vindictive, politically driven prosecutions of Trump and his allies, will likely allege Smith abused his authority and targeted conservatives in his investigations.
“Jack Smith must answer for what he did to hundreds of Republican groups and individuals,” Judiciary chair Chuck Grassley said in a statement.
Smith plans to tell senators that he stands by his prosecutions of Trump and will accuse the Trump administration of vilifying him and former members of his team, according to a copy of his opening statement seen by Reuters.
“I will not be silenced by the continued threats of prosecution from the president or others,” Smith plans to tell lawmakers.
Democrats will likely defend Smith’s investigations as holding Trump and others accountable for unlawful actions and argue Republicans are the ones trying to carry out vindictive justice on behalf of Trump.
Smith, who brought two criminal cases against Trump over his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his alleged mishandling of classified documents after his first term, has defended his record. In court filings and public testimony, Smith has said his investigations followed Justice Department policy and were not influenced by politics. He has been the constant target of Trump, who has called for Smith’s prosecution.
Tuesday’s hearing, titled “Oversight of Jack Smith’s Abuse of Authority and the Targeting of Republicans and Related Matters,” is Smith’s first appearance before a Senate panel.
SMITH OBTAINED PHONE RECORDS
Republican efforts to hold Smith responsible for his alleged abuse of power have picked up in the past year, though no charges against him have been filed. In December, Smith gave closed-door testimony to a GOP-led House committee, saying the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot “does not happen” without Trump. Smith then gave public testimony before the same committee in January.
Much of the Republican criticism of Smith has focused on records his investigators obtained involving members of Congress. Smith obtained phone call logs from several Republican senators around the time of the Capitol riot. In July, Republican senators revealed that Smith also reviewed texts from 44 US lawmakers as part of a review of material from White House aides.
Soon after, Jim Jordan, the Republican chair of the House Judiciary Committee, referred Smith to the Justice Department, claiming he made false statements to the panel about the nature of those phone records.
Smith was asked specifically about material known as toll records from members of Congress, which do not contain the content of any conversations.
Smith’s lawyers said Smith provided truthful information in his answers and was not required to divulge information that lawmakers did not ask about. Smith has said lawmakers’ phone records were necessary to investigate Trump’s pressure campaign to stop certification of his election defeat.
Trump’s Justice Department is also scrutinizing Smith’s investigation into Trump’s retention of classified documents as part of a larger investigation seeking to establish that Trump’s rights were violated.
Several former FBI officials who worked on the 2022 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, which predated Smith’s appointment as special counsel, have been asked to testify in that investigation in recent weeks.
(Reporting by Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff and Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Michael Learmonth and Daniel Wallis)
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