Smith is an organized and experienced prosecutor. He developed a very strong case against Trump. He had all the goods on Trump's involvement in the insurrection. He asked for his testimony to be shown in public. The Repubs did it behind closed doors. We know why. Smith says Trump would have been convicted if he had not been re-elected.
Jack Smith told lawmakers Trump was 'the most culpable' in election interference case, deposition transcript shows
- Thread starter Number Six
- Start date
I liked that he stated, it wouldn’t make a difference what party law breakers were, if they committed a crime, he would prosecute them. I believe him! Not his direct quote, but same meaning.
If you forget everything else Jack said, just remember this line from him:Jack Smith told lawmakers Trump was 'the most culpable' in election interference case, deposition transcript shows
The former special counsel who brought charges against Trump during the Biden administration had wanted to testify in public, but Republicans refused his request.
Jack Smith told lawmakers Trump was 'the most culpable' in election interference case, deposition transcript shows
The former special counsel who brought charges against Trump during the Biden administration had wanted to testify in public, but Republicans refused his request.www.nbcnews.com
The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday released a full transcript and video of former special counsel Jack Smith's closed-door deposition before the Republican-led panel earlier this month.
The release consists of a 255-page transcript and more than eight hours of video. Smith sought to testify publicly, but his request was denied by Republicans on the Judiciary Committee.
In the deposition, a confident, candid and straight-to-the-point Smith described in great detail why he believed he had enough evidence to not only try but convict President Donald Trump of conspiracy to obstruct the certification of the electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021, along with the other criminal charges against him in Washington, D.C., and Florida.
During his opening statement, Smith told lawmakers that his team found “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that Trump engaged in a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Smith also testified that Trump “repeatedly tried to obstruct justice” in the classified documents case, as previously reported by NBC News.
Jack Smith says he could prove Trump engaged in 'criminal scheme' to overturn 2020 election
02:59
On the election interference case, Smith said Trump was “by a large measure the most culpable and most responsible person in this conspiracy,” and that there was strong evidence that Trump was spreading “claims that were so outlandish and so just fantastical” and continuing “to push those sort of claims after they’d been disabused.”
The Judiciary Committee, led by Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, a top Trump ally, is investigating Smith and his former office over the federal indictments of the president after his first term.
One of the indictments alleged that Trump improperly stored classified documents after he left office, while the second alleged that he interfered in the 2020 presidential election by spreading false claims about voter fraud.
Both cases have since been dismissed. Trump pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.
Since returning to office, Trump has repeatedly called for Smith to be prosecuted.
Smith said during his testimony that he would not be surprised if he himself was indicted by the Justice Department.
At one point, Smith was asked whether Trump’s false statements about the 2020 election were protected by the First Amendment.
“Absolutely not,” he answered.
Recommended
2026 Election
news
“There is no historical analog for what President Trump did in this case. As we said in the indictment, he was free to say that he thought he won the election,” Smith said. "He was even free to say falsely that he won the election. But what he was not free to do was violate federal law and use knowing — knowingly false statements about election fraud to target a lawful government function.”
Smith told lawmakers multiple times that he could prove Trump knew the claims he was making about election fraud were false.
"When he was told that a fraud claim wasn’t true, he didn’t stop making it," Smith said.
"These would be false claims about dead voters. It would be false claims about underage voters. It would be false claims about illegal alien voters. The false claims were generally, as a general matter, about urban centers where he had lost the vote in a particular state that was otherwise close by a lot," he added. "And, again, these were claims that were rebutted by people around him who knew that they were false and in many cases told him they were false."
Smith also addressed Trump's attacks on him and other career civil servants in the Justice Department.
"I am both saddened and angered that President Trump has sought revenge against career prosecutors, FBI agents, and support staff simply for doing their jobs and for having worked on those cases," he said. "These dedicated public servants are the best of us, and they have been wrongly vilified and improperly dismissed from their jobs."
He also told committee members: "I made it clear from the day that I began at the Special Counsel’s Office this was going to be a nonpartisan investigation, this was not -- that politics would play no role in it. I think everybody in my office agreed to that."
To that effect, Smith described an incident of an FBI agent being dismissed from the case because they had disclosed emails that involved them arguing with family members about the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
"Once I saw that or heard about that, I decided he could no longer work on this investigation," Smith said.
"Without Donald J. Trump there would have been no insurrection on 1/6".
I'm with you, Phan! Garland's cowardice yielded a 2nd coming of the red-faced, antichrist.
I never got an explanation of why Garland did not go faster. They had the cases and the proof.
The reason: Garland did not want to make it appear he was being political. Ironic, since trump's DOJ is NOTHIING BUT POLITICAL. TRUMP'S DOJ IS A NAZI HIT-SQUAD.
Tobytone
Verified User
Another AI response
Jake Starkey
Verified User
AI is Tobytroll's master.
QP!
Verified User
As magats would say 'good. don't do the crime if you cannot do the time'.
He was bending over backwards to not appear partisan. He bent over backwards so far his head went up his own ass.
More sick than hilarious in my opinion.