As they prepared for the testimony of former special counsel Jack Smith, Republican staff on the Senate Judiciary Committee gave Sen. Eric Schmitt a warning: The texts they had obtained from the Justice Department — which Schmitt suggested was proof Smith had colluded with a Georgia state prosecutor — were “unvetted,” according to a source with direct knowledge of the conversation.
Schmitt used the texts anyway.
What followed was a congressional spectacle that unraveled almost as quickly as it began. Schmitt insisted Smith attended an Atlanta Hawks basketball game in February 2024, suggesting he may have conspired in some way with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, only to watch the allegation implode within minutes as C-SPAN cameras broadcast the exchange to the world.
According to a source familiar with the committee process and two sources familiar with the matter, the Justice Department shared materials with GOP staff on the Judiciary Committee in advance of Smith’s hearing. Grassley’s team assembled a memo about key information for the hearing, according to one source.
But Grassley’s staff didn’t include the texts in the memo, that source added.
Grassley also did not share the texts with Democratic senators before the hearing, according to a Democratic staffer and another source briefed by committee staff. That omission deepened Democratic suspicion that congressional Republicans and the Trump administration were working together to undermine or trap Smith, one of the people said.
Schmitt came to the Republican staff asking for material showing a connection between Smith’s investigation — which probed efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election through bogus claims of fraud — and Willis’ probe into whether Trump sought to manipulate the Georgia election results, according to a source with direct knowledge. The source said such back-and-forths over potential material is common practice ahead of congressional hearings.
After Schmitt’s team expressed interest, they received access to the texts, the source said.
Judiciary staff, however, explicitly warned Schmitt’s team that the texts were unvetted and that it was their responsibility to verify the information, the source said.
Neither Schmitt’s office, nor the Justice Department immediately responded to a request for comment.
It’s not unusual for the Justice Department to turn over a limited set of non-sensitive records in a case or program that is the subject of a congressional investigation. But Trump appointees have engaged in a highly unusual practice of sharing a broad swath of sensitive material, in this case from the special counsel’s investigation, as Republicans scour files for evidence that Smith and his staff engaged in misconduct.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
So far, those efforts have yielded plenty of allegations and conspiracy theories but no concrete examples of wrongdoing.
In a previous questioning of Smith, Republican members deployed internal communications from Smith’s office about subpoenas to accuse Smith of “wiretapping” GOP members of Congress as he investigated Trump’s attempt to interfere in the 2020 presidential election.
But the records didn’t back up those accusations.
Instead, they showed Smith’s office taking the routine investigative step of gathering the time and date of phone calls, but not the content of those calls. Smith explained he was seeking additional proof that GOP lawmakers had talked with Trump and key lieutenants during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
Smith said he already had evidence that Trump and his team had called lawmakers “to exploit the violence” at the Capitol and block the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the election.
Tuesday’s hearing presented a more basic problem: Schmitt’s implication that Smith and Willis secretly met on their respective cases against Trump was based on a comical mix-up. (Smith has denied ever meeting with Willis.)
As Schmitt insisted he had texts proving Smith had attended the Hawks game in Atlanta on Feb. 3, 2024, Smith looked confused. He said he had no recollection of being in Atlanta, other than possibly in the airport at some point awaiting a flight connection.
“I definitely did not go to a Hawks game,” he said. “I’m sure of that.”
This prompted Schmitt to smile and declare: “I think you’ve already perjured yourself.”
Minutes later, Smith recalled that he had attended a women’s college basketball game around the time Schmitt was describing — but it was a women’s basketball game in Maryland: the Iowa Hawkeyes against the University of Maryland.
A quick Google search showed the game was played on the same date, Feb. 3, 2024.
The date had significance to the senator.
Schmitt made it clear he was trying to catch Smith in a lie, but he appeared to have another goal as well. He seemed to believe he had found a smoking gun for a long-running theory — popular in far-right media — that Smith was secretly coordinating with the Georgia state prosecution of Trump.
Placing Smith in Atlanta would have bolstered that theory: The Hawks game in Atlanta was the day after Willis acknowledged in court filings that she had a personal relationship with one of the prosecutors on the case — a revelation that ultimately led to her removal.
The apparent implication was that Smith was down in Atlanta trying to help clean up the mess.
Had Schmitt or his staff done some basic checking, they would have found that the seat Smith was sitting in was in College Park, Maryland — not Atlanta. The particular seat number — mentioned in the staff texts — didn’t even exist in the Hawks’ State Farm Arena.
But they didn’t verify the information, and a hearing that was supposed to catch Smith in alleged misconduct left Schmitt looking foolish for leaping to conclusions.
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