Senate Judiciary
The Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate is a long-hallowed institution. Every Justice of the Supreme Court, every Federal judge, passes through this committee. If changes are made to the number of Supreme Court Justices, it will begin there. The Judiciary Committee dates back to 1816. Famous Chairman include Martin Van Buren, John Crittenden, Lyman Trumbull, Patrick McCarran, James Eastland, Strom Thurmond, Orrin Hatch, Ted Kennedy, Patrick Leahy, Arlen Specter, Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham.
But yesterday, the Judiciary Committee abandoned its dignity. The current Republican nonagenarian Chairman, Chuck Grassley, dragged the committee into another “viral moment” in the service of Donald Trump.
Grassley called former Special Prosecutor Jack Smith to the witness stand, and tried to batter him with questions. The intent was clear: to push one of the brightest legal minds in the United States into committing perjury, so that a spectacle of a man who dared to charge Donald Trump with crimes standing trial himself could occur.
Smith’s Dilemma
Smith’s problem was pretty apparent. He was intently aware of the “goal” of the Republican majority. He knew that every question could be a “perjury trap”, and that even an inadvertent statement could be duct-taped into charges that the Trump Justice Department would quickly prosecute. But he came to the Committee anyway, without subpoena, to tell his truth. He is certain that his team had proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the then-past, now-present President of the United States committed felonies both in inciting insurrection and keeping classified materials.
One after another, the Republicans tried to trip Smith up. Grassley tried to connect Smith to former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan (another bête noire of MAGA world). But Smith answered the question definitely: “I’ve never met John Brennan”. Grassley was slow to pick up the response, and got half-way into his next question about the Smith-Brennan relationship before he realized that the answer was no.
That didn’t stop the old Chairman from excoriating Smith for his “partisan prosecutions”.
The Play
But the ultimate “gotcha” was left to the Senator from Missouri, Eric Schmitt. He had been preparing it for days. The “catch” was so good, he had his staff float a rumor about a potential Vice Presidential candidacy with JD Vance in 2028. An array of interviews were scheduled on Right-wing media after the hearing to celebrate the question that would “put Jack Smith behind bars”.
After all, it couldn’t be a coincidence. Schmitt’s staff discovered that Jack Smith was at a “Hawks” basketball game on February 3, 2024. It was the day after Atlanta Prosecutor Fanni Willis confessed that she was having an affair with her lead Assistant Prosecutor. Willis, another lawyer on the MAGA hit list, charged Trump with state felonies in the “find me 11,780 votes” phone call. In fact, Willis not only charged Trump, but required him to submit to a Police booking. That mugshot now adorns the Department of Justice in Washington today, in a huge banner reminiscent of Mao’s Communist China.
They had the seat location that Smith reserved by row and letter. In fact, they had the texts among his US Marshal security team identifying that he was at the game. It wasn’t much of a reach to believe that Smith flew down to Atlanta to “huddle” with the Willis team, and try to get them through their crisis, and caught the game as a cover.
The Shot
So Schmitt confidently asked Jack Smith if he was in Atlanta on February 3rd, 2024. And when Smith hesitated, confused by the question, the Senator bored in, with detail about the game between the Atlanta Hawks and the Golden State Warriors. Smith said he never went to an Atlanta Hawks game, or even to Atlanta (though he might have passed through the airport). Schmitt moved in for the “kill”. “Here are the text messages from your staff”, and a giant poster, with texts bubbles and pictures of Fanni Willis and her lover was quickly flashed behind the dais.
Smith stopped, asking to see the poster again. But the Senator, convinced he had his convictable moment, wanted to move on. He claimed that Jack Smith committed perjury, and was a “dirtbag”. He thought that his “gotcha” mission was accomplished.
Upon Further Review
But the Democratic Senator from Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar, wanted to see the texts again. Nowhere in the “bubbles” was Atlanta mentioned. And Jack Smith did remember going to a basketball game around that time. It was an NCAA game between Maryland and Iowa women. Kaitlin Clark, the phenom of the Iowa team was playing that day (she scored 30 points). And even better, Klobuchar explained Schmitt’s confusion: it was the Maryland Terrapins versus the Iowa Hawk-eyes, not the Atlanta Hawks.
Schmitt’s sure “shot” at perjury came down to a “brick” on the hoop. He (or his staff) was so excited about tying Smith to Willis, that they confused the Hawks with the Hawkeyes. A later video showed Jack Smith at courtside at Maryland’s College Park campus (a block away from the District of Columbia, Washington DC).
Bricked
All of the venal rhetoric against Smith fell away. All of the great quotes about a Democratic Partisan Prosecution were swept from the floor. What was left was Senator Eric Schmitt, making a fool of himself trying to tie real tweets to fake actions. That’s what the world will remember from Chuck Grassley’s attempt to nail Jack Smith.
And as far as Eric Schmitt’s future Vice Presidential aspirations are concerned – they’re as solid as his evidence on Jack Smith. I guess we won’t have him to kick around in 2028.
