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Former Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith has defended the two criminal prosecutions he led against President Donald Trump, in an appearance before a committee in the United States House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
Testifying in a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, Smith took questions from the House Judiciary Committee about the two criminal indictments he ultimately spearheaded.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The first, filed in June 2023, alleged that Trump mishandled classified information while out of office. The second, in August of the same year, accused the Republican leader of seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost.<\/p>\n \u201cOur investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power,\u201d Smith told the committee.<\/p>\n He also fended off accusations from the Republican-led committee that his investigations had been politically motivated.<\/p>\n \u201cI made my decisions in the investigation without regard to President Trump\u2019s political association, activities, beliefs or candidacy in the 2024 election,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe took actions based on what the facts and the law required \u2014 the very lesson I learned early in my career as a prosecutor.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith added that the basis of his prosecutions \u201crests entirely with President Trump and his actions\u201d and that he would make the same decision again today to bring charges, whether the defendant in question were a Republican or Democrat.<\/p>\n Smith\u2019s appearance came as a result of a Republican-led subpoena, issued on December 3, for his testimony.<\/p>\n The subpoena set December 12 as the deadline for Smith to turn over documents related to the case, and Wednesday as the date for his congressional appearance.<\/p>\n Smith\u2019s remarks, however, took place behind closed doors, despite his request to hold the hearing in public.<\/p>\n Still, portions of his opening statement were provided to news agencies, including The Associated Press.<\/p>\n Republicans have maintained that the cases against Trump were partisan in nature and were designed to derail his 2024 re-election bid.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was political. This was about going after the Republican Party, and most importantly, it was about going after our candidate for president, President Trump,\u201d Representative Jim Jordan, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, told the TV programme Fox and Friends on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Formerly a prosecutor for the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Smith was appointed as a special counsel to the Justice Department in 2022, under former President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n Special counsels are selected from outside the Justice Department to prevent conflicts of interest in cases that are politically sensitive, and they operate without daily oversight from the department.<\/p>\n Smith ultimately dropped the two federal cases against Trump after the Republican leader\u2019s successful re-election in 2024, as it is against Justice Department policy to prosecute a sitting president. He later resigned in January, shortly before Trump took office.<\/p>\n But Trump has repeatedly called for Smith to be prosecuted for his role in the criminal cases against him.<\/p>\nRecommended Stories <\/h2>\n