WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith arrived on Capitol Hill for a closed-door interview with House Republicans on Wednesday after lawmakers rebuffed his offer to testify publicly about his investigations into President Donald Trump.
The private deposition is part of an ongoing investigation by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee into the Justice Department's criminal inquiries of Trump during the Biden administration.
Smith was subpoenaed earlier this month to provide testimony and documents, and his lawyers indicated that he would cooperate with the congressional demand despite having volunteered more than a month earlier to answer questions publicly before the committee.
Smith did not speak as he arrived just before 10 a.m., but his lawyer Lanny Breuer told reporters: “Jack is showing tremendous courage" by testifying.
Trump told reporters at the White House that he supported the idea of an open hearing, saying: “I'd rather see him testify publicly. There's no way he can answer the questions.”
Smith is expected to discuss both of his investigations of Trump but will not answer questions that call for grand jury materials, which are restricted by law, according to a person familiar with the investigation who insisted on anonymity to discuss the interview. He is also expected to correct what he regards as mischaracterizations from Republicans about his work, including about his team's use of cellphone records belonging to certain GOP lawmakers, the person said.
Smith was appointed in 2022 to oversee the Justice Department investigations into Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden and his hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Smith’s team filed charges in both investigations.
Smith abandoned the cases after Trump was elected to the White House again last year, citing Justice Department legal opinions that say a sitting president cannot be indicted.
Republicans who control Congress have sought interviews with at least some individual members of Smith’s team.
In recent weeks they have seized on revelations that the team, as part of its investigation, had analyzed the phone records of select GOP lawmakers from on and around Jan. 6, 2021, when pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol to try to halt the certification of Trump's election loss to Biden. The phone records reviewed by prosecutors included details only about the incoming and outgoing phone numbers and the length of the call but not the contents of the conversation.
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