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‘Backroom Strategy Backfired’: Dem Cheers as Jordan Invites Jack Smith to Open Hearing
In a surprising about-face, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan has agreed to allow former Special Counsel Jack Smith to testify before Congress in an open hearing — an outcome Democrats have been pursuing for months.
Smith investigated Trump and brought two federal indictments against President Donald Trump during the Biden era in two separate cases that ultimately ended without trial. In closed-door video testimony, Smith, it was recently revealed, said he had proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” in both cases.
“He’s coming in,” Chairman Jordan said of Smith in an interview on Friday, noting that it could be scheduled for as soon as this month. Politico reported that it “would be a politically high-stakes event for members of both parties and the White House.”
Politico reported Jordan said that one of the “key takeaways” in the transcript of Smith’s closed-door testimony, came when lawmakers asked: “did you [have] any evidence that President Trump was responsible for the violence that took place at the Capitol?’”
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“He had no evidence of that whatsoever,” Jordan said of the December interview with Smith.
But Smith, in his testimony, noted that the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol “does not happen” without Trump.
Meanwhile, some Democrats were “celebrating” the turn of events.
“After Republicans forced Jack Smith into a backroom interrogation and rejected our calls for an open public hearing, now they decide they want a public hearing with Jack Smith after all,” U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the Judiciary Committee’s Ranking Member, said in a statement. “Their backroom strategy backfired in historic fashion.”
“Even with many hours of private testimony, Republicans could not lay a glove on Jack Smith, his evidence, or his case,” Raskin added. “That will not change now that they have finally heeded our call to have him come testify publicly.”
“This upcoming hearing is a win for truth-seeking Americans and yet another looming humiliation for Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans, who depend on a daily diet of lies to keep their administration afloat.”
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Image via Reuters
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