Trump is watching Jack Smith’s testimony — and has thoughts
As former special counsel Jack Smith testifies publicly before Congress for the first time, President Donald Trump is watching.
In a Truth Social post Thursday afternoon, Trump wrote that Smith was being “DECIMATED” by members of the House Judiciary Committee — even as panel Republicans have yet to formally rebut the findings of Smith’s investigation into Trump’s retention of classified documents and attempts to subvert the results of the 2020 election.
The president also suggested he hoped Attorney General Pam Bondi was looking into Smith’s conduct.
“If he were a Republican, his license would be taken away from him, and far worse!” Trump wrote of Smith. “Hopefully the Attorney General is looking at what he’s done, including some of the crooked and corrupt witnesses that he was attempting to use in his case against me.”
Smith’s cases were widely seen as the strongest vehicles for putting Trump behind bars. Both matters were ultimately dropped by the Justice Department before Trump took office for the second time in 2025.
The Trump Justice Department has sought to bring criminal charges against several of the president’s political adversaries, including New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey. Trump has also long argued for Smith’s prosecution, too.
A spokesperson for Smith declined to comment on Trump’s post beyond Smith’s remarks during the hearing. Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) asked Smith if he was aware of the president’s social media message and if he had a response; Smith said he did not know about it and did not have anything to add.
House Republicans have been antagonistic of Smith during the hearing so far but have focused their questioning heavily on Smith’s procedure in pursuing his cases against the president — most notably the subpoenas he obtained for the phone data of several sitting Republican lawmakers.
Asked about Trump’s post, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told reporters it was ultimately up to the Justice Department whether to look into Smith.
“Our job is to do oversight,” Jordan said. “We’ll leave it up to the Justice Department on whether they prosecute and who they may prosecute.”
Rep. Wesley Hunt refused to answer repeated questions about his spotty voting record Thursday after he appeared in the Capitol for the first time in two weeks.
The Texas Republican has missed dozens of votes this Congress as he seeks the Senate seat now held by fellow Republican John Cornyn. His last recorded vote before providing the decisive vote Thursday to kill a measure constraining President Donald Trump’s war powers in Venezuela was on Jan. 7.
“Y’all be safe, y’all be safe — the storm is coming,” he said, referring to the upcoming winter weather, as reporters peppered him with questions about why he has missed so many House votes.
Earlier in the day a Hunt spokesperson said he was on his way back to Washington at Speaker Mike Johnson’s request after being told by another, unnamed GOP leader “that his presence in D.C. was not needed this week.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Bill and Hillary Clinton are “working in good faith” to comply with Oversight Committee subpoenas related to Jeffrey Epstein, a day after the panel voted to recommend holding them in contempt over their refusal to appear for testimony.
The top Democratic leader said the former president and the former secretary of State “are working in good faith to try to reach an accommodation with the Oversight Committee in order to sit down and offer their testimony.”
He said the contempt effort led by Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) “lacks any credibility” in part because “it has always been congressional practice that if someone is under a subpoena, you work to find reasonable accommodation in order to receive their testimony.”
Nine Oversight Democrats voted with Republicans Wednesday to recommend holding Bill Clinton in contempt, while three Democrats voted to recommend holding Hillary Clinton in contempt, both as part of the panel’s investigation into the late convicted sex offender.
A spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee said the Clintons’ attorneys had not been in touch since the contempt vote.
Prior to Wednesday’s vote, Jeffries urged opposition to a contempt recommendation.
Asked if he was advising members not to support the contempt measure on the floor, Jeffries cited the opposition of Reps. Robert Garcia of California and Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrats respectively on the Oversight and Judiciary committees. He said his own position “remains unchanged.”
“When it gets to the floor, if we need to have a broader caucus, wide conversation about it, we will,” he added.
Bipartisan House lawmakers on a key health committee want to know: Why are health insurance CEOs’ salaries so high while their customers struggle to pay for care?
Lawmakers posed the question to five health insurance CEOs testifying before the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee on health care........
