IN HIS TESTIMONY before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Jack Smith presented Republicans with an opportunity.
asserted
Smith → present → opportunity
Smith, the former special counsel who investigated Donald Trump’s attempt to overthrow the 2020 election, distinguished Trump from the Republican party.
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who → investigate → party
He praised honest Republican officials who had stood up to Trump’s corrupt pressure.
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who → praise → pressure
The committee’s senators, listening to Smith’s remarks, could have chosen to identify with the honest Republicans he cited as models.
uncertain
he → listen → models
Instead, the senators chose to identify with Trump.
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senators → choose → Trump
Almost unanimously, they ignored or rejected Smith’s distinctions between the president and his party.
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they → ignore → president
And they insisted that Smith, by investigating Trump and seeking records of Trump’s interactions with Republican lawmakers, had disqualified himself as a partisan.
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Smith → insist → partisan
In doing so, they clarified what today’s Republican party is.
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party → do → ?
It has no place for ethical public servants.
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It → have → servants
Anyone who criticizes or stands up to Trump is, by the party’s own definition, against the GOP.
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who → criticize → GOP
That’s worth remembering when you go to the polls.
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you → ’ → polls
That doesn’t mean everything has to be grim.
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everything → mean → ?
We can learn together.
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We → learn → ?
And when democracy needs defending, we can stand together.
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we → need → ?
You’re already reading.
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You → read → ?
Join the side you’re already on.
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you → join → side
THE COMMITTEE’S CHAIRMAN, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), kicked off the hearing by dismissing Smith’s investigators as partisan agents and prosecutors who “mapped out the Republican apparatus.”
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who → kick → apparatus
He cited Smith’s subpoenas of Republican organizations and of phone records that showed the dates, times, and lengths—but not the contents—of calls to or from Republican lawmakers.
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that → cite → lawmakers
Smith didn’t get a chance to rebut Grassley’s diatribe until it was the turn of the committee’s ranking member, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
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it → get → member
Smith explained that he had sought Republican lawmakers’ phone records because the lawmakers were targets of Trump, not of the investigation.
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lawmakers → explain → investigation
He noted that several had contacted the White House during the January 6th attack on the Capitol, pleading with Trump to call off his mob.
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several → note → mob
After the attack had subsided, Trump and his henchman, Rudy Giuliani, had phoned some of the lawmakers again, pressing them to overturn the election.
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Trump → subside → election
The phone records would confirm details of these calls.
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records → confirm → calls
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), speaking next, ignored Smith’s explanation.
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Kennedy → speak → explanation
He used his time to impugn Smith’s integrity.
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He → use → integrity
Smith pointed out that he had been a nonpartisan prosecutor for thirty years and had worked in Trump’s first administration.
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he → point → administration
But Kennedy wouldn’t let up.
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Kennedy → let → ?
He baited Smith with allegations that Smith’s wife was too nice to Michelle Obama.
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wife → bait → Obama
Then, without offering a shred of evidence, Kennedy claimed that Joe Biden had instructed then-Attorney General Merrick Garland to prosecute Trump.
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Biden → offer → Trump
When Smith didn’t take any of Kennedy’s bait, the senator exploded.
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senator → take → bait
“You make me want to throw up in my mouth,” he seethed.
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he → make → mouth
The hearing’s most remarkable incident came during questioning from Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.).
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incident → come → Schmitt
Schmitt called Smith a “total dirtbag,” accused him of conspiring to “get Trump,” claimed that Smith had “weaponized the Department of Justice,” and snidely asked him, “Did you purposely assemble a team of partisan hacks?”
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you → call → hacks
Then Schmitt demanded to know whether Smith had attended an NBA game in Atlanta on February 3, 2024.
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Smith → demand → February
When Smith said he hadn’t, Schmitt grinned and boasted that he had just caught the former special counsel in a perjury trap.
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he → say → trap
It turned out that Schmitt had screwed up and Smith, once again, was telling the truth.
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Smith → turn → truth
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said Smith’s investigation “makes what Richard Nixon did in Watergate look like a Sunday picnic.”
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did → say → picnic
Lee, astonishingly, wasn’t comparing Nixon to Trump.
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Lee → compare → Trump
He was comparing Nixon to Smith.
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He → compare → Smith
At every turn, Smith patiently debunked the accusations of partisanship.
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Smith → debunk → partisanship
…and 31 more, not listed.
The Aporia
