Jack Smith, the former U.S. Justice Department special counsel who brought two now-dropped criminal cases against President Donald Trump, will give a public testimony before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on Jan. 22.
Smith will testify before the panel at 10 a.m. (1500 GMT) on Jan. 22, the panel's chair, Republican U.S. Representative Jim Jordan said late on Monday. Trump's Republican Party holds a narrow majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Smith had privately testified before the House committee in December, when he defended his investigation into Trump, telling lawmakers that the basis for the prosecutions "rests entirely with President Trump and his actions."
His private testimony in December followed months of disclosures from Trump appointees at the Justice Department and Republican lawmakers that criticized Smith’s investigation and supported Trump’s claims of legal overreach.
On New Year's Eve, the House panel released 255 pages of transcript from Smith's mid-December testimony.
The transcript showed Smith to be saying that Trump acknowledged to others that he lost the 2020 election against former President Joe Biden.
On Jan. 6, 2021, a group of Trump supporters breached the U.S. Capitol during an effort to stop Congress from certifying the election results. After taking office for a second time in January 2025, Trump pardoned individuals convicted in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol breach
Smith and his team secured indictments in 2023, accusing Trump of illegally retaining classified documents following his first term in office and plotting to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election. Smith dropped both cases after Trump won the 2024 election, citing a Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
Smith has said his prosecutors followed Justice Department policy and were not influenced by politics. Trump and his allies have alleged political motivation.
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