| Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, issued the following statement after the public release of former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s closed-door deposition video and transcript, detailing his investigations into President Donald Trump’s criminal wrongdoing: “The release of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s full deposition makes crystal clear what this Administration and its allies in Congress have tried so desperately to hide: these criminal prosecutions were not ‘failed’—they were blocked. Blocked by the Roberts Court’s indefensible rabbit-out-of-a-hat decision that a President is above the law and cannot be prosecuted for felonies he commits on the job; blocked by Donald Trump’s reelection and the longstanding Justice Department policy against indicting a sitting president; blocked by Judge Aileen Cannon’s sweeping injunction prohibiting Mr. Smith from discussing in any detail President Trump’s criminal retention of classified documents (not to mention her ludicrous conclusion that Mr. Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional); and blocked by Attorney General Bondi’s continued suppression of Volume II of the Special Counsel’s report. “Mr. Smith testified compellingly and unequivocally that his office developed proof beyond any reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the 2020 election and willfully retained highly classified documents after leaving office. He confirmed that January 6th would not have happened without Donald Trump’s instigation and participation and that the President was ‘the most culpable and most responsible person’ in the conspiracy to prevent the lawful transfer of power. Mr. Smith’s investigations built airtight criminal cases, and it was only Trump’s return to power that allowed him to escape accountability for these astounding offenses. “The Trump Administration’s attempt to selectively bury evidence, silence prosecutors, and rewrite history with conspiracy theories has been exposed for what it is: a cover-up designed to shield the President from the consequences of his own lawless actions. Mr. Smith’s testimony established that the case against Trump was built largely on statements from his own close associates and fellow Republicans—people who, in Mr. Smith’s words, ‘put their allegiance to the country before the party.’ Mr. Smith likened Trump’s false elector scheme to affinity fraud, exploiting the trust of loyal supporters to perpetrate a crime against our democracy. He emphatically denied the smear that his team ‘tapped’ the phones of Senators, explaining that they lawfully obtained toll records, not the content of calls, for a narrow window around January 6, and only because Trump himself directed his co-conspirators to contact those lawmakers to obstruct the certification and entrench him in office. And Mr. Smith highlighted the outrage of targeting experienced career prosecutors and agents for simply following the law and doing their jobs, harming public safety and our democracy. “The only people ‘weaponizing’ the Justice Department are those who have turned it into a personal protection racket for Donald Trump. And Special Counsel Smith proved that in his testimony. The Republicans didn’t lay a glove on him.” |
Former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Deposition Details Trump’s Criminal Wrongdoing
