Smith, GOP House Judiciary sharpen battle lines with talking points ahead of public hearing

The House Judiciary Committee, ahead of former special counsel Jack Smith’s first public testimony on his Trump probes, has released a talking points memo about Smith, whom Republicans and others say conducted politically motivated investigations against President Trump related to this first term.Smith, as a Biden Justice Department special counsel, oversaw two investigations into Trump that resulted in more than 40 federal charges. Those probes ended after Trump took office for a second time in January 2025.
One probe centered on Trump’s retention of sensitive government documents after leaving the White House in 2021. The other was related to the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election that Trump lost. The cases were brought to an end after Trump won a second term in November 2024, according to CBS News. Smith and Trump each has denied wrongdoing.
The top four points in the committee’s release, titled “12 Facts About Jack Smith,” are:
• He continued – and continues – to depart from precedent set by other special counsels by asserting a person’s guilt without a jury verdict. Smith  violates the fundamental tenet of the American legal system of innocent until proven guilty. 
• He imputed guilt to President Trump partially because of who advised the President at the relevant times –implying that only “experts,” in Smith’s view, should be briefing the President. Smith seems to believe that he is an  arbiter of who may counsel a president. 
• He stated that he was deeply involved in the details of his office’s investigations. But, when probed, Smith said he could not recall basic investigative steps that his team took. 
In December 2025, Smith spoke to Capitol Hill lawmakers in roughly eight hours of close-door deposition. His lawyers have for months urged lawmakers to allow their client to testify in public.
Smith rejected suggestions that he sought to damage Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. Just the News could not reach Smith on Thursday morning. But he is expected to say in his opening testimony, “Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in criminal activity,” according to a copy of his tatement obtained by The Associated Press. 
“If asked whether to prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether that president was a Republican or a Democrat.”

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