A House committee has released a transcript and video of former special counsel Jack Smith’s closed-door December deposition, in which he defended the Justice Department investigations that led to federal indictments of Donald Trump related to the 2020 election and classified documents.
The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee has released a transcript and video of a closed-door deposition former special counsel Jack Smith gave in December.
In the testimony, Smith defended the investigation that led to a federal election-subversion indictment of Donald Trump. Smith said Trump was, “by a large measure, the most culpable and most responsible person” in the alleged conspiracy, adding that the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol “does not happen without him.” He also rejected allegations from Trump and his allies that the probe was pursued for political reasons, saying he “entirely” disagreed with the characterization that the work was meant to hamper Trump’s presidential campaign.
Smith told lawmakers he believed the evidence in the election case was strong, saying it relied heavily on testimony from Republicans who, in his words, put “their allegiance to the country before the party.”
Lawmakers questioned Smith about the special counsel’s use of phone toll records. Smith confirmed that investigators obtained Senate phone records that reflected call timing information involving lawmakers and Trump aides around Jan. 6, but not the contents of those calls. He said the records related to efforts to delay the certification proceedings and asserted that Trump had directed co-conspirators to contact the lawmakers.
When asked about the classified-documents case, Smith said less, indicating he was constrained in what he could discuss because of a federal judge’s order.
Smith’s testimony comes after his two Trump prosecutions ended without trial. The Justice Department dropped the election case and abandoned efforts to revive the classified-documents prosecution after Trump returned to office following his 2024 election victory, citing a long-standing department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
The deposition release offers a rare public view of Smith’s defense of the investigative tactics and evidence used in two of the most closely watched Justice Department cases in recent years, including continued debate over when and how prosecutors should seek lawmakers’ phone toll records.