Former Special Counsel Jack Smith appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday as Republican senators scrutinized his investigations of President Donald Trump, including the collection of lawmakers’ communications records and allegations that federal authorities exceeded their investigative authority.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Former Special Counsel Jack Smith testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday as senators examined his investigations of President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers’ allegations that the Biden-era Justice Department improperly used federal investigative powers against political opponents.
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The hearing began at 9 a.m. Eastern on Sept. 29 in the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington. The committee formally titled the proceeding “Oversight of Jack Smith’s Abuse of Authority and the Targeting of Republicans and Related Matters,” reflecting the allegations advanced by Republican Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa and other GOP members.
Smith, who served as special counsel from 2022 until early 2025, defended his work and denied that either of his investigations of Trump was driven by partisan considerations. Republicans used the hearing to question investigative decisions made by Smith’s office, particularly its collection of telephone and other communications records connected to members of Congress during the investigation into efforts to challenge certification of the 2020 presidential election.
Grassley and other Senate Republicans have spent months examining the investigation known as Arctic Frost, the federal probe that ultimately developed into Smith’s election-related case against Trump.
Documents released by the committee showed that investigators obtained records involving Republican members of Congress and other political figures while examining communications surrounding the effort to contest the 2020 election results. Republican lawmakers have argued that the breadth of the investigation raises constitutional and oversight concerns.
Committee Republicans previously disclosed that Smith’s investigative team obtained and reviewed text messages involving 44 members of Congress. Grassley has also said subpoenas were issued to telecommunications companies seeking toll records associated with current or former Republican lawmakers.
Smith has defended the collection of non-content telephone records as a legitimate investigative step intended to establish communications relevant to the federal investigation.
The records at issue included information identifying calls and communications rather than the contents of those conversations. Smith has maintained that investigators were attempting to reconstruct communications surrounding efforts to influence certification of the 2020 presidential election and that the investigative techniques used were consistent with Justice Department practices.
Republicans have challenged that explanation and accused investigators of sweeping political organizations, lawmakers and Trump allies into an investigation they contend went far beyond legitimate law-enforcement purposes.
Grassley’s committee has also raised questions about whether Smith’s team followed internal procedures intended to protect constitutionally sensitive congressional communications.
Records released by Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., showed investigators obtained and reviewed messages involving dozens of members of Congress. The senators alleged that investigators bypassed a required filter-team process intended to screen material that could implicate constitutional protections. Those remain allegations made by Republican congressional investigators as part of their oversight of the Justice Department.
Smith rejected the broader accusation that his office targeted Republicans because of their political affiliation.
He has said prosecutors followed the evidence and Justice Department rules in pursuing both federal cases against Trump and has maintained that Trump’s candidacy in the 2024 presidential election did not influence charging decisions.
Smith was appointed special counsel in November 2022 by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland.
His mandate included two investigations involving Trump: one concerning efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and another concerning Trump’s possession and handling of classified government documents after leaving the White House.
Smith ultimately obtained federal indictments against Trump in both matters.
The election case charged Trump with four federal counts arising from alleged efforts to interfere with the transfer of presidential power following the 2020 election.
The classified-documents prosecution accused Trump of illegally retaining classified national defense information after leaving office and obstructing government efforts to recover documents stored at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Trump denied wrongdoing and repeatedly characterized both prosecutions as politically motivated attempts by the Biden administration to damage his campaign and prevent his return to the White House.
Smith and the Justice Department denied those accusations.
After Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Smith moved to dismiss the federal election prosecution based on longstanding Justice Department policy that a sitting president cannot be criminally prosecuted. Smith subsequently resigned from the Justice Department.
The competing interpretations of those investigations were central to Tuesday’s hearing.
Republicans presented Smith’s conduct as part of a broader examination of whether federal law-enforcement agencies used investigative tools improperly against Trump, members of Congress and conservative political organizations.
Democrats defended Smith’s investigations as legitimate criminal inquiries based on evidence and argued that the hearing itself was an attempt to discredit prosecutors who investigated Trump.
Senate Judiciary Committee ranking Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois said ahead of the hearing that Smith had offered for months to appear publicly under oath. Durbin described Smith as a career prosecutor and defended the legitimacy of the investigations he conducted after his appointment by Garland.
Smith also used his appearance to push back against calls from Trump and other Republicans for him to face criminal investigation or prosecution over his conduct as special counsel.
He said he would continue defending his work despite those threats and maintained that his prosecutorial decisions were based on evidence rather than politics. Reuters reported that Smith told senators he would not be “silenced” by threats of prosecution.
The hearing also comes as Republican congressional investigators continue examining internal Justice Department records connected with Arctic Frost.
Grassley has released documents throughout 2026 that he says raise questions about the collection of congressional communications, the handling of classified information and the scope of Smith’s investigations.
In July, Grassley released records that he said showed members of Smith’s team obtained and reviewed text messages involving 44 members of Congress. Earlier disclosures showed telecommunications subpoenas seeking toll records associated with Republican lawmakers.
The committee chairman has argued that those records demonstrate the need for additional congressional scrutiny of Smith’s decisions and Justice Department procedures.
Smith maintains that the investigative steps were lawful and necessary to determine the extent of communications connected with the events being investigated.
The dispute over his conduct has continued long after the criminal prosecutions themselves ended, turning the former special counsel into a central figure in congressional investigations of the Biden Justice Department.
Tuesday’s appearance marked Smith’s first testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee over the Trump investigations and gave senators an opportunity to question him directly about decisions that have been the subject of months of document releases, subpoenas and political accusations.
The hearing occurred Tuesday, Sept. 29 — not Sept. 28, which fell on Monday in 2026 — as the committee continued its broader investigation into Arctic Frost and the conduct of federal law-enforcement officials during the Trump prosecutions.
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