Former particular counsel Jack Smith, testifying Thursday earlier than the GOP-led Home Judiciary Committee, was unequivocal about who induced the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“Our investigation revealed that Donald Trump is the one that induced Jan. 6, that it was foreseeable to him and that he sought to use the violence,” Smith testified. “We adopted the info and we adopted the legislation — the place that led us was to an indictment of an unprecedented prison scheme to dam the peaceable switch of energy.”
Smith, who led investigations into Trump’s alleged interference within the 2020 election and alleged mishandling of classified documents, testified publicly for first time about his probes.
Trump pleaded not responsible to all expenses in each instances, earlier than each instances were dropped following Trump’s reelection because of the Justice Division’s long-standing coverage barring the prosecution of a sitting president.
The previous particular counsel mentioned that partisan politics didn’t play a job in his choice to cost Trump in his two investigations.
“A number of the strongest witnesses have been witnesses who, in actual fact, have been fellow Republicans who had voted for Donald Trump, who had campaigned for him and, who wished him to win the election. These included state officers, individuals who labored on his marketing campaign and advisors,” Smith mentioned of his election interference probe.
In searching for to problem the outcomes of the 2020 election, Trump was “searching for methods to remain in energy,” Smith testified.
Former particular counsel Jack Smith, testifies earlier than the Home Judiciary Committee about his investigations into President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill in Washington, January 22, 2026.
Saul Loeb/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Trump was not “was not searching for sincere solutions about whether or not there was fraud within the election. He was searching for methods to remain in energy. And when folks informed him, issues that conflicted with him endurance, he rejected them or he selected not even to contact folks like that,” Smith informed committee members.
Smith informed legislators that he wouldn’t be intimated by President Trump’s statements calling for him to be investigated.
“The statements are supposed to intimidate me. I cannot be intimidated. I believe these statements are additionally made, as a warning to others what’s going to occur in the event that they rise up,” Smith mentioned. “I am not going to be intimidated. We did our work pursuant to Division coverage. We adopted the info, and we observe the legislation.”
Requested in regards to the sweeping pardons Trump granted those that have been charged with attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, Smith mentioned, “I don’t perceive why you’ll mass pardon individuals who assaulted law enforcement officials. I do not get it. I by no means will.”
Republican Rep. Troy Nehls, who’s retiring from the Home, addressed the Capitol Cops who have been within the chamber.
“I want to rapidly tackle the law enforcement officials from Jan. 6, ” Nehls mentioned. “I am a member of the brand new choose committee to truly study, really study what occurred that day, and I can inform you gents that the fault doesn’t lie with Donald Trump. It lies with … the U.S. Capitol management crew. We all know, we all know that they had the intelligence, and there was going to be a excessive propensity for violence.”
Founding father of the Oath Keepers Stewart Rhodes listens to the testimony of former Justice Division particular counsel Jack Smith earlier than the Home Judiciary Committee, Jan. 22, 2026 on the Capitol in Washington.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Beneath questioning from Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Smith mentioned the witnesses his crew had interviewed in his election interference probe.
“There have been witnesses who I felt could be very sturdy witnesses, together with, for instance, the secretary of state in Georgia who informed Donald Trump the reality, informed him issues that he didn’t wish to hear and put him on discover that what he was saying was false,” Smith mentioned. “And I imagine that witnesses of that nature, witnesses who’re keen to inform the reality, even when it’ll impose a value on them of their lives — my expertise as a prosecutor over 30 years is that witnesses like which might be very credible, and that jurors are likely to imagine witnesses like that, as a result of they pay a value for telling the reality.”
Smith mentioned that he received the phone toll records for some members of Congress as a result of his workplace was investigating the conspiracy to cease the peaceable switch of energy.
“We wished to conduct an intensive investigation of the issues, that have been assigned to me, together with makes an attempt to intrude with the lawful switch of energy. The conspiracy that we have been investigating, it was related to get toll information, to know the scope of that conspiracy, who they have been searching for to coerce, who they have been searching for to affect, who was searching for to assist them,” Smith mentioned, arguing that it was a traditional piece of an investigation.
In a back-and-forth with Republican Rep. Darryl Issa, Smith mentioned he did not goal then-President Joe Biden’s political enemies.
“Possibly they are not your political enemies, however they positive as hell have been Joe Biden’s political enemies, weren’t they? They have been Harris’ political enemies. They have been the enemies of the president and also you have been their arm, weren’t you?” Issa requested.
“No,” Smith mentioned. “My workplace did not spy on anybody.”
He mentioned that the choice to convey expenses in opposition to Trump was solely his choice and that he was not pressured by any Biden official.
“President Trump was charged as a result of the proof established that he willfully broke the legislation, the very legal guidelines he took an oath to uphold,” Smith mentioned. “Grand juries in two separate districts reached this conclusion primarily based on his actions as alleged within the indictments they returned.”
In his introductory remarks, Smith additionally mentioned the president illegally stored categorized paperwork at his Mar-a-Lago property.
“After leaving workplace in January of ’21, President Trump illegally stored categorized paperwork at his Mar-a-Lago Social Membership and repeatedly tried to hinder justice to hide his continued retention of these paperwork. Extremely delicate nationwide safety data withheld in a ballroom and a toilet,” Smith mentioned.
Former particular counsel Jack Smith, testifies earlier than the Home Judiciary Committee about his investigations into President Donald Trump, within the Rayburn Home Workplace Constructing on Capitol Hill in Washington, January 22, 2026.
Saul Loeb/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Smith mentioned that the info and the legislation supported a prosecution, and that he made selections not primarily based on politics, however the info and the legislation.
“Our investigation developed proof past an affordable doubt that President Trump engaged in prison exercise. If requested whether or not to prosecute a former president primarily based on the identical info at this time, I might accomplish that no matter whether or not that president was a Democrat or a Republican,” he mentioned.
“Nobody, nobody ought to be above the legislation on this nation, and the legislation required that he be held to account. So that’s what I did,” Smith mentioned. “To have carried out in any other case on the info of those instances, would have been to shirk my duties as a prosecutor and as a public servant, of which I had no intention of doing.”
He additionally criticized what he mentioned was the retribution carried out by the president and his allies in opposition to brokers and prosecutors who investigated the instances.
“My concern is that we’ve got seen the rule of legislation perform in our nation for therefore lengthy that many people have come to take it as a right,” he mentioned. “The rule of legislation just isn’t self-executing. It relies on our collective dedication to use it. It requires devoted service on behalf of others, particularly when that service is tough and comes with prices. Our willingness to pay these prices is what take a look at and defines our dedication to the rule of legislation and to this glorious nation.”
In his opening assertion, Committee Chairman Jim Jordan blasted Smith for what he referred to as a partisan investigation into President Trump and different Republicans.
“Democrats have been going after President Trump for ten years, for a decade, and the nation ought to by no means, ever neglect what they did,” Jordan mentioned.
Jamie Raskin, the committee’s rating Democrat, mentioned that Smith proved that Trump “engaged in a prison scheme to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 election and to stop the lawful switch of energy.”
Former Particular Counsel Jack Smith arrives to testify earlier than a Home Judiciary Committee listening to about his prison investigation President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, January 22, 2026.
Kylie Cooper/Reuters
“Particular counsel Smith, you pursued the info. You adopted each relevant legislation, ethics rule and DOJ regulation. Your selections have been reviewed by the Public Integrity part. You acted primarily based solely on the info — the other of Donald Trump,” Raskin mentioned.
Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell mentioned that Republicans on the dais “are a joke.”
“They’re flawed. Historical past will harshly decide them,” he mentioned.
Smith’s look Thursday marked his second time earlier than the committee, after he appeared behind closed doors in December. It’s customary for former particular counsels to look earlier than Congress publicly to debate their findings.
Former Justice Division particular counsel Jack Smith stands earlier than the Home Judiciary Committee earlier than a listening to about his investigations into President Donald Trump, Jan. 22, 2026 on the Capitol in Washington.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
In his closed-door testimony, Smith defended his choice to twice convey expenses in opposition to Trump — telling lawmakers his crew “had proof past cheap doubt in each instances” that Trump was responsible of the fees within the 2020 election interference and categorized paperwork instances, in accordance with a transcript of the listening to.
And Smith fervently denied that there was any political affect behind his choice — opposite to allegations of Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, who requested the testimony — resembling strain from then-President Joe Biden or then-Legal professional Basic Merrick Garland, the transcripts exhibits.
“No,” Smith responded repeatedly to these allegations, in accordance with the transcript.
Simply over an hour earlier than his testimony on Dec. 17, the Division of Justice despatched an e-mail to Smith’s attorneys stopping him from discussing the categorized paperwork case, in accordance with the 255-page transcript of the deposition, launched final 12 months by the Judiciary Committee together with a video of the listening to.
On this Dec. 17, 2025, file photograph, former Division of Justice Particular Counsel Jack Smith departs on the finish of a Republican-led deposition earlier than the Home Judiciary Committee as a part of its oversight into DOJ investigations into President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP, FILE
This meant Smith was unable to reply most questions on that case and the deposition — supposed to ask questions in regards to the alleged weaponization of the DOJ in opposition to Trump and his allies — primarily centered on the 2020 election case as a substitute.
His crew additionally mentioned Smith will adjust to U.S. District Decide Aileen Cannon’s order that blocked the release of the second quantity of his report coping with the categorized paperwork case.
Smith’s counsel mentioned the DOJ additionally refused to ship a lawyer to advise Smith on whether or not his statements have been in keeping with their dedication of what he might or couldn’t say relating to the instances, in accordance with the deposition. Smith did say, nevertheless, that Trump “tried to hinder justice” within the categorized paperwork investigation “to hide his continued retention of these paperwork.
