Jack Smith Tells House Panel He Acted Without Bias (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Mr. Smith, you may begin. Chairman Jordan, Ranking Member Raskin, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss my work in special counsel. I love my country and believe deeply in the core principles upon which it was founded. For nearly three decades, I've served as a career prosecutor in both Republican and Democratic administrations. I've handled cases ranging from domestic assault and gang violence to public corruption, election crimes across the United States, and I've prosecuted war crimes overseas. I am not a politician and I have no partisan loyalties. My career has been dedicated to serving our country by upholding the rule of law. Throughout my public service, my approach has always been the same. Follow the facts and the law without fear or favor. Experienced prosecutors know that specific case outcomes are beyond our control. Our responsibility is to do the right thing, the right way, for the right reasons. These principles have guided me through my career, including as special counsel. I'm proud of the work my team did and I appreciate the opportunity to appear here today to correct false and misleading narratives about our work. During my tenure as special counsel, we followed Justice Department policies, we observed legal requirements, and took actions based on the facts and the law. I made my decisions without regard to President Trump's political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 election. President Trump was charged because the evidence established that he willfully broke the law, the very laws he took an oath to uphold. Grand juries in two separate districts reached this conclusion based on his actions as alleged in the indictments they returned. Rather than accept his defeat in the 2020 election, President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results and prevent the lawful transfer of power. After leaving office in January of 21, President Trump illegally kept classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago social club and repeatedly tried to obstruct justice to conceal his continued retention of those documents. Highly sensitive national security information was held in a ballroom and a bathroom. As I testify before the committee today, I want to be clear. I stand by my decisions as special counsel, including the decision to bring charges against President Trump. Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in criminal activity. If asked whether to prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether that president was a Democrat or a Republican. No one, no one should be above the law in this country, and the law required that he be held to account, so that is what I did. To have done otherwise on the facts of these cases would have been to shirk my duties as a prosecutor and as a public servant, of which I had no intention of doing. I remain grateful for the counsel, judgment, and advice of my team. President Trump has sought to seek revenge against career prosecutors, FBI agents, and support staff simply for having worked on these cases. To vilify and seek retribution against these people is wrong. Those dedicated public servants are the best of us, and it has been a privilege to serve with them. After nearly 30 years of public service, including in international settings, I have seen how the rule of law can erode. My fear is that we have seen the rule of law function in our country for so long that many of us have come to take it for granted. The rule of law is not self-executing. It depends on our collective commitment to apply it. It requires dedicated service on behalf of others, especially when that service is difficult and comes with costs. Our willingness to pay those costs is what tests and defines our commitment to the rule of law and to this wonderful country. Thank you.

[00:05:01] Speaker 2: The former U.S. special counsel, Jack Smith, testifying up on Capitol Hill on camera this hour. Smith was sworn in last hour before the House Judiciary Committee. He's been a frequent target of President Trump's and many Republicans, and that's why he asked to testify publicly today.

[00:05:20] Speaker 3: Smith secured two criminal indictments against Trump when he was with the Biden Justice Department. They involved Trump's alleged role in trying to overturn the 2020 election and charges that he mishandled classified material. And this morning, Smith again emphasized that he operated without any political bias.

[00:05:38] Speaker 1: I want to be clear. I stand by my decisions as special counsel, including the decision to bring charges against President Trump. Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in criminal activity. If asked whether to prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether that president was a Democrat or a Republican.

[00:06:09] Speaker 3: CNN congressional correspondent Lauren Fox is on Capitol Hill. Lauren, testimony began about an hour ago. The hearing is still in recess, but what have you heard that jumped out to you?

[00:06:18] Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, what you're seeing here are two distinct efforts by both Republicans and Democrats, and Democrats are really trying to give Jack Smith some space to tell the story of his investigation to remind voters who may have forgotten over the last year of Trump's presidency what was at stake in this investigation for Jack Smith and his team. You know, you heard from the beginning, Jamie Raskin, the ranking member, laying out Jack Smith's history as a nonpolitical prosecutor and sort of trying to make it clear that this is someone who would have done this investigation regardless of if this was a Republican or a Democrat who had carried out these actions. Meanwhile, you have Republicans doing the exact opposite, trying to put him in the hot seat, trying to triangulate any differences that may come up between what he said in a closed door deposition to members just a few weeks ago and what he is saying in public. Republicans obviously are being very careful here to try to create any daylight, any kind of perjury trap here for Jack Smith. So that is something that is also playing out in sort of the piece of this as he is testifying. Now, I will note that lawmakers on Capitol Hill are engaging right now in a vote series on the House floor. That is why you are having this recess. So they sort of got started, had a couple of members do questioning, and then they quickly had to adjourn and turn to the House floor because they obviously have important issues to deal with today, including trying to get that government funding bill passed before the government funding deadline at the end of next week.

[00:07:58] Speaker 3: All right. Busy day there on Capitol Hill. Lauren Fox, we appreciate it.