Ex-Trump prosecutor Smith will tell senators he won't 'be silenced' by threats of prosecution

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two federal indictments against President Donald Trump, will tell lawmakers on Tuesday that he “will not be silenced by continued threats of prosecution” from the Trump administration and that he believes the rule of law is being threatened like never before. Smith will also tell the Senate Judiciary Committee that he stands behind the criminal cases that he brought against Trump, a Republican, and that he and his team acted without regard to politics. “I made these decisions without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election,” Smith will say, according to a copy of his prepared remarks.

“Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in criminal conduct. If asked whether to prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether the president was a Republican or Democrat.” The hearing is expected to focus on subpoenas for phone records Even as Smith defends his investigations, he is expected to be pressed anew by Republican senators about his team’s access to the phone records of GOP lawmakers as prosecutors investigated Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. In previous testimony, Smith has stood behind subpoenas that prosecutors issued for the phone records of Republican members of Congress who were in touch with Trump when violent supporters of the president rioted inside the U.S.

He has said that such subpoenas are a “common practice” in investigations and were necessary in this instance to understand the “scope of the conspiracy” between Trump and his Republican allies. Nonetheless, the revelation that Smith’s team secretly obtained the phone records during his investigation has animated some Republican lawmakers, who point to it as proof of overreach by the Biden administration Justice Department and a hard-charging prosecutor. In July, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep.

Jim Jordan of Ohio, referred Smith to the Justice Department for potential prosecution on allegations that he lied at a previous hearing about his collection of the records — something Smith’s attorneys have vigorously disputed.