Political allies of
Smith said that fellow Republicans were willing to cooperate with the investigation into Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in a 255-page transcript and video deposition that was released Wednesday by the
The committee has been investigating probes led by Smith into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents after he left the White House in 2021.
Lawmakers from both parties questioned Smith for a full day earlier this month in a closed-door deposition about those investigations, which Trump’s allies have criticized as being part of a sweeping conspiracy against him.
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Smith secured indictments against Trump, both in the
Trump and his allies blasted Smith’s investigations, often describing them and other actions they disliked as examples of how the Biden administration “weaponized” the government against conservatives.
Smith rejected that line of attack during the deposition, telling lawmakers that he had “numerous” witnesses who would have said they voted for and supported Trump, but believed his actions had broken the law.
“We had an elector in Pennsylvania who is a former Congressman who was going to be an elector for President Trump who said that what they were trying to do was an attempt to overthrow the government and illegal,” Smith said. “Our case was built on, frankly, Republicans who put their allegiance to the country before the party.”
When asked if Trump’s First Amendment rights allowed him to claim that he had won the election, Smith said he was free to make false statements.
“But what he was not free to do was violate federal law and use knowingly false statements about election fraud to target a lawful government function,” Smith said. “And that differentiates this case from any past history.”
According to the transcript, Smith defended his actions, testifying that he would have brought similar investigations and charges against Democratic presidents.
“It’s important to state clearly the amount of evidence we had and the basis for why we proceeded,” Smith told the committee. “Why we proceeded as we did is because we had a strong case, as I set forth in the final report.”
Smith told the House Judiciary Committee about a Jan. 6, 2021, phone call during the attack on Congress between Trump and
Smith said
“That’s totally ridiculous, as Mr. Jordan was one of the last people off the floor on January 6th, and it’s certainly not what Mr. Meadows was meaning to say,” said Jordan spokesman Russell Dye.
A message left for Meadows at the Conservative Partnership Institute, where he is a senior partner, wasn’t immediately returned.
The release of Smith’s deposition on New Year’s Eve came as the Trump administration confronts multiple challenges domestically and abroad.
With control of both houses of Congress at stake in next year’s midterm elections, polls show that many Americans give the president low marks on the economy.
Questions over Trump’s association with the late financier and convicted sex criminal
At the same time, the president’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine have thus far been unsuccessful. And as he prepares for meetings with the Chinese leader
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the deposition Wednesday evening.
Smith, a career federal prosecutor, was
Almost immediately, Trump began accusing Smith and his staff of persecuting him. Even before his return to office, he has said that Smith himself should face prosecution over what he and his supporters claim is misconduct.
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Peter Blumberg
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