How a sloppy Republican attempt to ensnare a Trump enemy backfired spectacularly

October 1, 2026 — 11:19am

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Washington: It’s sometimes said that the Trump administration operates on the motto: “Shoot first, aim later.”

So it was in the US Senate on Tuesday as Republicans tried to incriminate Jack Smith, the Joe Biden-era special prosecutor who twice charged Donald Trump with criminal offences while the now-president was out of office.

Smith was hauled before a Senate hearing on his alleged “abuse of authority and targeting of Republicans”. The GOP senators brought props and everything. What they didn’t bring, however, was adequate preparation.

Eric Schmitt, a Republican senator from Missouri, pursued Smith over whether he attended an NBA basketball game between the Atlanta Hawks and the Golden State Warriors in Atlanta, Georgia on February 3, 2024.

The timing was significant because the game took place the day after Fani Willis – then the district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia – admitted to an intimate relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.

Willis, a Democrat, had also brought charges against Trump, alleging that he and others entered a criminal conspiracy to fraudulently overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia.

Those charges eventually collapsed, in part because Willis was disqualified from the case after her affair with Wade was exposed.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Schmitt implied that Smith might have colluded with........

© Brisbane Times