Former special counsel Jack Smith – the man responsible for two indictments against President Donald Trump – appeared on Capitol Hill Thursday, January 22, for a congressional hearing. It was an eventful day with a lot at stake: Republicans grilled Mr. Smith on his twin prosecutions, and he defended them, knowing any inconsistency or misstatement in his testimony could result in a criminal referral to the Justice Department.
But forcing Jack Smith back in front of Congress – this time in a televised event – also gave him an opportunity to outright declare to the world his belief that Donald Trump caused the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot and sought to exploit the violence. “No one should be above the law in this country, and the law required that he be held to account,” Smith said during his opening statement. “So that is what I did.”
Another 15 Minutes of Fame
When Donald Trump won his second term in the White House, he was mired in multiple criminal investigations. Jack Smith charged the then-candidate with intentionally trying to overturn the 2020 election in one case and, in another, mishandling classified documents after his presidency ended.
But Congress kept dragging him out of obscurity and dusting him off again. Republicans, led by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), accused him of bringing criminal charges against a leading presidential candidate solely for the political purpose of interfering with the 2024 election. President Trump himself wanted the testimony, saying on Truth Social: “I’d rather see him testify publicly because there’s no way he can answer the questions.”
Smith wanted the hearing too, however, as it meant finally being allowed to talk publicly about his work and argue the case he never got a chance to make in court. And he wasn’t the only one to get another fifteen minutes of fame, so to speak.
Former DC Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone, who was at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, drew both eyes and cameras when he confronted conservative activist Ivan Raiklin, both of whom were present to witness the hearing. “You’re a traitor to this f**king country,” Fanone said. “Go f**k yourself!”
“This guy has threatened my family, threatened my children. Threatened to rape my children… you sick bastard,” Fanone continued as others tried to separate the two and move Fanone away. Raiklin later took to X to deny the former officer’s claims and raised the possibility of suing him for defamation.
A Win for Jack Smith and Democrats – or Trump and Republicans?
The hearing concluded after five intense hours, and both Republicans and Democrats seemed to think they came out ahead. “I’m thrilled and frankly stunned House Republicans called Jack Smith to testify,” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) told MS Now afterward, “because Jack Smith is reminding the American people of the criminal that Donald Trump is.”
That’s certainly the case that Smith seemed to try to make – and it’s also exactly what one would expect Democrats and anti-Trump folks in general to take away from it all. But nothing could ever exonerate the president in their eyes. And just as they see everything as evidence of Trump’s guilt, Republicans came away from the hearing believing it had demonstrated the political motivation and illegitimacy of Smith’s prosecutions.
Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) told reporters that Americans would now see Smith for who he really is. “Because I think we tore him apart today,” Nehls said. “We exposed a rat today.”
Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan felt it went “very well,” telling the press, “I think everyone sees how political this whole thing was.”
But who really won – if anyone – may well be determined by the voters in November. Probably few, if any, will be swayed by the hearing to change their core political beliefs, but that won’t stop both sides from using it as campaign fodder in an election year.
