President Trump and Republicans are engaged in “a retribution campaign” against former special counsel Jack Smith, his lawyer told reporters Wednesday ahead of Mr. Smith’s deposition on Capitol Hill.
Mr. Smith did not speak to reporters as he entered a Judiciary Committee office where he is slated to face questions from Republican and Democratic members of the panel about his prosecution of President Trump.
Mr. Smith’s lawyer, Lanny A. Breuer, told reporters that Mr. Smith showed “tremendous courage” in the face of the inquiry. Mr. Breuer did not answer questions about newly declassified FBI emails indicating agents did not believe they had probable cause to raid Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in 2022.
“Let’s be clear, Jack Smith, a career prosecutor, conducted this investigation based on the facts and based on the law, and nothing more,” Mr. Breuer said.
Republicans want to know more about Mr. Smith’s prosecution of Mr. Trump, which spanned nearly two years and accelerated during his presidential campaign in 2024.
Mr. Smith secured felony indictments against Mr. Trump in two separate cases, one of them related to claims of improper handling of classified information and the other based on charges that Mr. Trump interfered with the 2020 election by contesting President Biden’s narrow victories in swing states.
Both cases are no longer active.
On Wednesday, the FBI released emails showing the Justice Department pressured the FBI to execute the Mar-a-Lago search warrant, allowing them to conduct an unprecedented and sweeping raid of a former president’s residence at a time when Mr. Trump was considered a likely 2024 presidential candidate.
A grand jury later indicted Mr. Trump on 40 felony charges related to the documents. The case was thrown out in 2024 by a federal judge who agreed with defense lawyers that Mr. Smith was illegally appointed by the Justice Department.
Mr. Smith has defended his prosecution of Mr. Trump and offered to testify at a public hearing about the two cases.
