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A few hours from now, former special counsel Jack Smith will be back on Capitol Hill, sitting
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across from some of the Republican senators who say his investigation targeted them
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Smith is the only witness at this morning's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing
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He led the two federal investigations that resulted in charges against President Trump
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one over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, the other overclassified documents
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found at Mar-a-Lago. Both cases were dismissed after Trump won re-election. Republicans are
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expected to focus on how Smith's team gathered information during those investigations
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Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley calls it, quote, Rampant abuse of authority and political targeting. Reports released by Grassley and
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House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan back in July say Smith's investigation obtained texts
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and messages involving 44 lawmakers. A separate House Judiciary report says investigators subpoenaed
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phone records from more than a dozen Republican members of Congress. Democrats say Republicans are using the hearing to defend Trump and attack the investigation
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Senator Peter Welch told Roll Call, quote, well, they're in denial. They think that President
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Trump won the 2020 election and it is consistent with that fiction. Smith has defended his decision
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to prosecute Trump, saying he would have brought the same cases regardless of whether the president
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was a Republican or Democrat
