Republicans failed to even try to challenge the substance of Smith’s case against Trump

Former special counsel Jack Smith testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, and Republican members largely declined to dispute whether Donald Trump committed the crimes he was charged with, according to MS NOW's Steve Benen. Smith has now been questioned at three Republican-led hearings since late last year, part of a long GOP effort to portray his prosecutions as a politically motivated plot against Trump. Those prosecutions began with a June 2023 indictment over classified documents, followed two months later by a second case over efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

In his opening remarks, Smith said his team had developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt of serious crimes by Trump, and that he would bring the same case against a former president of either party. He defended his staff, calling the Trump-led Justice Department's decision to fire them "illegal," and argued that the probe was driven largely by Republican witnesses who broke with Trump over the 2020 election. Calling the investigation partisan, he said, is hard to square with the fact that its strongest witnesses were Republicans.

Republican senators pressed concerns about investigative procedures and aimed personal attacks at Smith, but across all three hearings, neither House nor Senate Republicans ever argued that Trump was innocent of the charges. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri told Politico the inquiry into Smith had run its course in Congress, saying "we kind of know what we know." Benen calls the campaign a waste of time and resources.

Summarized by PolitiKool from MS NOW’s reporting. Read the full story at MS NOW →