Senate GOP to press Jack Smith on Trump Jan. 6 probe as DOJ targets investigators

WASHINGTON — Former special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two since-dismissed federal criminal cases against Donald Trump, is expected to face questions on Tuesday from the president’s allies in the Senate about his handling of his investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the lead-up to the Jan.6 attack on the U.S.

Capitol.Smith is set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee amid the Justice Department’s push to target law enforcement officials involved with Smith’s investigation into Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results as well as the probe into his handling of classified documents after he left office in January 2021.Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has repeatedly criticized Smith.The title of Tuesday’s hearing, which Grassley will chair — “Oversight of Jack Smith’s Abuse of Authority and the Targeting of Republicans and Related Matters” — suggests a potentially combative hearing.

With it, Grassley asserts that Smith misused his investigative powers and politically targeted Republicans.Smith, who as a career prosecutor went after Republicans and Democrats, has denied such allegations.

Grassley said in a statement ahead of the hearing that Smith “must answer” for what the senator portrays as “rampant abuse of authority and political targeting” funded by American taxpayers.“If Jack Smith did that to Democrats, you’d never hear the end of it,” Grassley said in the statement, adding that his goal is holding accountable the Justice Department for actions taken during the Biden administration.Smith did not issue a statement in advance of his testimony.Smith has said he believes a jury would have convicted Trump in the 2020 election-related case had it gone to trial and that the notion that his decisions were “influenced or directed by the Biden administration or other political actors is, in a word, laughable.” Smith’s final report in the election interf...