Jack Smith to look subsequent week at a public listening to to testify on Trump probes

FIRST ON FOX: Former particular counsel Jack Smith will testify in a listening to earlier than the Home Judiciary Committee subsequent week, giving Republican and Democratic lawmakers on the panel an opportunity to grill him in a public setting on his prosecutions of President Donald Trump.

Smith will seem earlier than the committee on Jan. 22, one month after he sat for a closed-door deposition with the committee and testified for eight hours about his particular counsel work, a supply acquainted advised Fox Information Digital.

Smith had lengthy mentioned he wished to talk to the committee publicly, and though Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, first demanded the deposition, the chairman additionally mentioned an open listening to was on the desk.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM JACK SMITH’S TESTIMONY TO HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

Smith investigated Trump and introduced two indictments towards him over the 2020 election and alleged retention of categorised paperwork. Trump pleaded not responsible and aggressively fought the fees, and Smith dropped each circumstances when Trump received the 2024 election, citing a Division of Justice coverage that daunts prosecuting sitting presidents.

In a public listening to, Home lawmakers will have the ability to query Smith in five-minute increments, whereas within the deposition, every social gathering questioned Smith in one-hour classes. Politico first reported that Smith would seem for a listening to someday this month.

Smith gave little new data throughout his preliminary assembly with the committee and defended his work.

“I made my selections within the investigation with out regard to President Trump’s political affiliation, actions, beliefs, or candidacy within the 2024 presidential election,” Smith mentioned, based on a transcript of the deposition. “We took actions primarily based on what the details, and the legislation required, the very lesson I realized early in my profession as a prosecutor.”

JACK SMITH DEFENDS SUBPOENAING REPUBLICANS’ PHONE RECORDS: ‘ENTIRELY PROPER’

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio., appears on throughout a listening to with the Home Judiciary Committee within the Rayburn Home Workplace Constructing on Sept. 03, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photos)

Smith mentioned he adopted DOJ coverage when his group made the controversial resolution to subpoena quite a few Republican senators’ and Home members’ telephone data as a part of his 2020 election probe. Smith famous the subpoenas sought a slender set of knowledge.

“If Donald Trump had chosen to name plenty of Democratic senators [to delay the election certification proceedings], we might have gotten toll data for Democratic senators. So accountability for why these data, why we collected them, that is — that lies with Donald Trump,” Smith mentioned.

The Republicans have mentioned the subpoenas had been unconstitutional violations of the speech or debate clause, and so they have broadly mentioned the Biden DOJ abused its authority by bringing, of their view, politicized legal prices towards a former president and presidential candidate.

Trump, who has lengthy decried Smith as a “thug” and mentioned he belongs in jail, has mentioned he welcomes Smith at a public listening to.

President Donald Trump throughout a presentation within the Oval Workplace of the White Home in Washington, DC, on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (Bonnie Money/UPI/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos)

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Requested about Smith’s look subsequent week, a consultant for Smith offered a press release from one in every of his attorneys, Lanny Breuer.

“Jack has been clear for months he’s prepared and keen to reply questions in a public listening to about his investigations into President Trump’s alleged illegal efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his mishandling of categorised paperwork,” Breuer mentioned.