Jack Smith is ‘not afraid’ of Donald Trump, his legal team says ahead of Thursday testimony
By Katelyn Polantz, CNN
(CNN) — Jack Smith is “not afraid” of Donald Trump, whom he unsuccessfully tried to take to trial during the 2024 campaign, his legal team told CNN Wednesday.
The former special counsel has spoken to the House Judiciary Committee before, in private, but on Thursday the cameras will be on, and his team is prepared for members of congress to engage in the political theater that comes with that. Long speeches, they said, are expected.
Smith’s role — in which he brought two criminal indictments against a president — was unprecedented. His public testimony is expected to be major and flashy moment, as Trump has repeatedly called for Smith to be criminally prosecuted. Smith will have to walk a tightrope to avoid violating court secrecy rules around the cases and providing Congress fulsome answers that are likely to be closely scrutinized for accuracy.
Smith’s December 17 testimony before the House Judiciary Committee lasted more than eight hours. Lawmakers grilled him over the two criminal investigations into Trump, one probing the mishandling and retention of classified documents and a second inquiry into his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election.
Both cases Trump faced from the Smith special counsel probe are now dismissed. One ended because Trump won the 2024 presidential election, and the other was dismissed by a Trump-appointed judge who believed Smith’s office wasn’t properly backed by Congress. That judge, Aileen Cannon in South Florida’s federal court, has kept half of Smith’s final report under seal, essentially blocking Smith’s ability to discuss in detail what his investigation found regarding the allegations that Trump unlawfully kept boxes of classified documents in unsecured room at Mar-a-Lago beginning in 2020.
While news outlets including CNN have revealed much about that investigation — such as the audio recording of Trump discussing keeping a classified record in a meeting with staff, and what a key witness who worked for Trump’s Florida resort saw and told Smith’s team — Smith is likely to decline to describe much more than what was specified in the June 2023 indictment of Trump and two of his employees.
Smith, a career prosecutor who had worked in both Republican and Democratic administrations, will emphasize in his testimony his three decades of experience and that he’d prosecute any former presidents on the same facts today, according to his team.
As he did during the closed-door testimony, he is also expected to again explain why he believes the investigation bore proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump engaged in criminal activity.
At least three prosecutors from Smith’s special counsel’s office have spoken to lawmakers in the past few months. That includes Thomas Windom, who led in court the obstruction case against Trump related to the January 6, 2021 US Capitol riot; Jay Bratt, who led the prosecution of Trump over mishandling classified records and obstruction of justice following his first term in office; and JP Cooney, Smith’s deputy in the special counsel’s office.
The key prosecutors on the special counsel’s team — including Windom, Bratt and Smith — are no longer works for the Justice Department.
Republicans have made a criminal referral to the Justice Department on Windom over the way he answered some questions. And Bratt declined to answer questions in his deposition and instead asserted his Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination.
Smith had the option to take the 5th as well, his legal team told CNN, even though they believe he and the special counsel’s office violated no laws in their work.
But Smith is welcoming the opportunity to describe his work in the Justice Department, his team said.
The-CNN-Wire
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