The Daily Populous Thursday December 18th, 2025 night edition
Authored by apnews.com and submitted by SpaceElevatorMusic

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith told lawmakers in a closed-door interview Wednesday that his team of investigators “developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that President Donald Trumphad criminally conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to portions of his opening statement obtained by The Associated Press.

Smith also said investigators had accrued “powerful evidence” Trump broke the law by hoarding classified documents from his first term as president at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and by obstructing government efforts to recover the records.

“I made my decisions in the investigation without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election,” Smith said. “We took actions based on what the facts and the law required — the very lesson I learned early in my career as a prosecutor.”

He said that if asked whether he would “prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether the president was a Republican or Democrat.”

Former Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith, center, and his attorney Lanny Breuer, center rear, arrive at a hearing room in the Rayburn House Office Building after a break in his deposition before the House Judiciary Committee, part of its oversight into DOJ investigations into President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Former Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith, center, and his attorney Lanny Breuer, center rear, arrive at a hearing room in the Rayburn House Office Building after a break in his deposition before the House Judiciary Committee, part of its oversight into DOJ investigations into President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook

The day-long deposition before the House Judiciary Committee gave lawmakers of both parties their first chance, albeit in private, to question Smith for hours about investigations into Trump that resulted in criminal cases between the Republican president’s first and second terms. Smith was subpoenaed by the Republican-led committee for testimony and documents as part of a GOP investigation into the Trump inquiries during the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden.

The former special counsel cooperated with the congressional demand, though his lawyers noted that he had volunteered more than a month before the subpoena was issued to answer questions publicly before the committee — an overture they said was rebuffed by Republicans. Trump had told reporters that he supported the idea of an open hearing.

“Testifying before this committee, Jack is showing tremendous courage in light of the remarkable and unprecedented retribution campaign against him by this administration and this White House,” Smith lawyer Lanny Breuer told reporters. “Let’s be clear: Jack Smith, a career prosecutor, conducted this investigation based on the facts and based on the law and nothing more.”

Attorney Lanny Breuer speaks on behalf of former Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith after his arrival for a House Judiciary Committee deposition as part of its oversight into DOJ investigations into President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Attorney Lanny Breuer speaks on behalf of former Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith after his arrival for a House Judiciary Committee deposition as part of its oversight into DOJ investigations into President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook

Smith was appointed in 2022 to oversee Justice Department investigations into Trump’s efforts to reverse his 2020 loss to Biden and Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Smith’s team filed charges in both investigations but abandoned the cases after Trump was elected to the White House last year, citing Justice Department legal opinions that say a sitting president cannot be indicted.

Multiple prior Justice Department special counsels, including Robert Mueller, have testified publicly but Smith was summoned for just a private interview. Several Democrats who emerged from Smith’s interview said they could understand why Republicans did not want an open hearing based on the damaging testimony about Trump they said Smith offered.

The committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, said the Republican majority “made an excellent decision” in not allowing Smith to testify publicly “because had he done so, it would have been absolutely devastating to the president and all the president’s men involved in the insurrectionary activities” of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Jack Smith has just spent several hours schooling the Judiciary Committee on the professional responsibilities of a prosecutor and the ethical duties of a prosecutor,” Raskin said.

Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., talks to reporters during a break as house members question former Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith in a closed-door interview at Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., talks to reporters during a break as house members question former Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith in a closed-door interview at Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook

Democrats are demanding that Smith’s testimony be made public, along with his full report on the investigation. A volume on the classified documents investigation has yet to be released.

“The American people should hear for themselves,” said Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y.

The committee chairman, Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, told reporters, “I think we’ve learned some interesting things.” He declined to discuss what was said in the room, but reiterated his position about the investigations.

Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., listens during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib) Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., listens during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook

Smith’s interview unfolded against the backdrop of a broader retribution campaign by the Trump administration against former officials involved in investigating Trump and his allies. The Office of Special Counsel, an independent political watchdog, said in August that it was investigating Smith, and the White House issued a presidential memorandum this year aimed at suspending security clearances of lawyers at the law firm that provided legal services to Smith.

The deposition also comes as Republicans in Congress, aided by current FBI leadership, look to discredit the investigations into Trump through the release of emails and other documents that sometimes lack complete context.

In recent weeks, they have seized on revelations that Smith’s team, as part of its investigation, had analyzed the phone records of select GOP lawmakers from a several-day period around the Capitol insurrection, when pro-Trump rioters stormed the building to try to halt the certification of Trump’s election loss to Biden.

The phone records reviewed by prosecutors included information about the incoming and outgoing phone numbers and the length of the call but not the contents of the conversations. Smith told lawmakers Wednesday that the records were properly subpoenaed, “were relevant to complete a comprehensive investigation” and were related to calls Trump made urging lawmakers to delay certification of the election.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the president pro tempore of the Senate, emerges from a Republican Conference meeting during work to end the government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Nov. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the president pro tempore of the Senate, emerges from a Republican Conference meeting during work to end the government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Nov. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook

On Tuesday, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released a batch of internal FBI emails leading up to the August 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago. In one message, written weeks before the search, an agent wrote that the FBI’s Washington field office did not believe probable cause existed to search the property for classified records.

But Republicans who trumpeted the emails as proof that the Biden Justice Department was out to get Trump omitted the fact that agents who later searched the property reported finding boxes of classified, even top-secret, documents. In addition, the then-head of the Washington field office has testified to lawmakers that by the time of the search, the FBI believed probable cause existed to do it.

Follow the AP’s coverage of former special counsel Jack Smith at https://apnews.com/hub/jack-smith.

accountabilitycounts on December 17th, 2025 at 17:00 UTC »

"Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power."

What an unbelievable timeline, that so much proof could be gathered yet by stymied by the defendant's own hand-picked judge.

SpaceElevatorMusic on December 17th, 2025 at 16:56 UTC »

https://xcancel.com/kylegriffin1/status/2001324205644603696

> BREAKING on MS NOW:

> Jack Smith, in his opening statement to the House Judiciary Committee, says:

> "Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power."

https://xcancel.com/kylegriffin1/status/2001325386483847319

> MORE from Jack Smith:

> "Our investigation also developed powerful evidence that showed President Trump willfully retained highly classified documents after he left office in January 2021, storing them at his social club, including in a bathroom and a ballroom where events and gatherings took place. He then repeatedly tried to obstruct justice to conceal his continued retention of those documents."

fairoaks2 on December 17th, 2025 at 16:54 UTC »

The evidence was in the bathroom. Pictures are the proof. Jack Smith should go public with everything.