Senators gear up for Judiciary clash with Jack Smith

Michael Macagnone, CQ-Roll Call on Sep 28, 2026

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WASHINGTON — The special counsel who supervised the dismissed federal criminal cases against President Donald Trump is set for a confrontation with the Senate Judiciary Committee this week.

Even the title of the hearing — “Oversight of Jack Smith’s Abuse of Authority and the Targeting of Republicans and Related Matters” — gives a hint of the tone former special counsel John L. “Jack” Smith will likely face from majority Republicans when he sits as the sole witness Tuesday.

Republicans have argued for months that Smith acted as a tool of the Biden administration, echoing Trump’s claims of a Justice Department “weaponized” against him. Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, has led the charge in the Senate, demanding accountability and releasing documents about Smith obtaining call toll records and messages of several congressional Republicans as part of his probes.

“Jack Smith must answer for what he did to hundreds of Republican groups and individuals,” Grassley said in a statement. “The records made public to-date show rampant abuse of authority and political targeting — all on the taxpayers’ dime. If Jack Smith did that to Democrats, you’d never hear the end of it. I look forward to achieving some accountability on the part of the misguided Biden Justice Department.”

Last week the House Judiciary Committee released its own report on Smith’s investigations, alleging that investigators had “unconstitutionally subpoenaed” phone records of more than a dozen Republican members of Congress and disregarded the separation of powers.

Smith last appeared before Congress in January, when he testified before the House Judiciary Committee about his work.

Reports published by both Grassley and House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, have stated that Smith obtained the texts and messages of 44 lawmakers and hundreds of others as part of his probes into Trump’s alleged crimes.

Several of the lawmakers involved are on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. Hawley and others argued that Smith’s actions violated the “speech or debate” clause of the Constitution, which provides members of Congress with immunity from testifying about their work.

“I’m sure we’ll have a lot of questions about his many illegal activities, spying on members of Congress, violating DOJ procedures. The list is long,” Hawley said last week ahead of the hearing.

Democrats, meanwhile, have argued for months that Republicans were afraid to have Smith actually testify about his work and the allegations against Trump.

“It’s a chance to put him under oath and answer some of the charges that have been flying. For over a year, he’s volunteered to appear here. Republicans wouldn’t have him until” now, said Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee.

Another member of the panel, Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said Republicans’ attacks on Smith were part of their broader defense of Trump.

“Well, they’re in denial. They think that President Trump won the 2020 election, and it is consistent with that fiction,” Welch said.

Days after Trump announced his 2024 presidential run, then-Attorney General Merrick B. Garland appointed Smith to serve as special counsel and take over two existing grand jury probes into Trump. Both eventually resulted in federal indictments.

One focused on Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election, including allegations that he tried to stop states from counting votes and attempted to engineer the presentation of false electors to Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, and that he spurred the attack on the Capitol itself.

The other alleged that Trump had taken hundreds of classified documents as a private citizen to his Mar-a-Lago resort and stored some of the nation’s most closely guarded secrets in publicly accessible areas of the club.

Both were dismissed before trial once Trump won reelection, due to a DOJ policy that sitting presidents cannot face federal charges.

Since taking office, Smith has been a frequent target of Trump as well as his allies in Congress.

“Deranged Jack Smith should be brought to Justice, NOW!!!” Trump posted on his social media website Truth Social in March.

No court has found wrongdoing on the part of Smith or any of the prosecutors as part of the probes themselves. One former prosecutor on the team has faced charges for attempting to email herself a portion of a report Smith wrote that the Trump administration decided against making public.