Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats have requested that panel chair, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), apologize to ex-special counsel Jack Smith on behalf of his Republican colleagues following a contentious hearing in September.
Democrats said in a letter Wednesday that Smith faced “unacceptable personal attacks and false accusations of perjury” during the committee’s hearing over his handling of two criminal investigations into President Donald Trump. Politico first reported the letter.
Smith, who served as special counsel from 2022 to 2025, independently oversaw two Justice Department investigations into Trump — one over the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot and another over alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Republicans have criticized Smith for his investigations, which led to criminal indictments, as the Justice Department continues to pursue investigations of an alleged grand conspiracy against the president.
The hearing on Sept. 29 grew particularly heated when Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) attempted to tie Smith to Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis, who pursued a separate case against the president, by showing records the senator said placed Smith at an Atlanta Hawks NBA game.
Smith denied attending the game or meeting Willis as special counsel, saying he had attended a game between the University of Maryland and the Iowa Hawkeyes around that time instead. He also said he didn’t believe he had visited Atlanta, outside of the airport, during his tenure.
Viral Confrontation
The moment went viral after Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who sits on the Judiciary Committee, confronted Schmitt during the hearing, suggesting he had mixed up his basketball teams and chastising him for calling Smith a “dirtbag.” Schmitt had also accused the former special counsel of perjuring himself.
Committee Democrats in their letter called Schmitt’s behavior during the hearing “beneath the dignity of this Committee and the Senate.”
They also said they haven’t received records of the text messages and a phone call about the basketball game used by Schmitt and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) during the hearing. Because they didn’t receive these records prior to the hearing, Democrats were “forced to synthesize these baseless accusations and respond in real time,” they said in the letter.
Withholding these records broke Senate rules, caused confusion, and “created an embarrassing stain on one of the most important committees in Congress,” the Democrats argued. They called on Grassley to provide the documents.
Grassley’s office pushed back against the accusations.
“It’s Jack Smith who owes an apology to the thousands of Americans he and his staff ran roughshod over,” Clare Slattery, communications director for Grassley, said in a statement.
To contact the reporter on this story: Claire Bernard at cbernard@bloombergindustry.com
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brandon Conradis at bconradis@bloombergindustry.com; Martha Mueller Neff at mmuellerneff@bloomberglaw.com