Former special counsel Jack Smith arrived for a closed-door deposition on Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee, marking the first time lawmakers will directly question him about the federal prosecutions he brought against President Donald Trump.
The deposition began shortly after 10 a.m. ET, following Smith’s chaotic arrival at the Rayburn House Office Building. Wearing a gaunt expression and walking hastily from the elevator lobby and down the hall, he declined to answer any questions while being followed by a crowd of reporters and television cameras.
Former special counsel Jack Smith arrives for deposition with House lawmakers in D.C.https://t.co/R2GnYJVFGa
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) December 17, 2025
Captured by: @KaelanDC pic.twitter.com/NlnqXlSnZ6
Smith then entered a nearby room for what is likely to be hours of questioning by Republican and Democrat lawmakers. One of Smith’s lawyers, Lanny Breuer, told reporters that his client is facing an “unprecedented retribution campaign.”
“Testifying before this committee, Jack is showing tremendous courage,” Breuer said. “Let’s be clear: Jack Smith is a career prosecutor, who conducted this investigation based on the facts and based on the law and nothing more.”
The deposition comes as House and Senate Republicans are planning to continue into next year a sweeping investigation over what they describe as the “weaponization” of the Justice Department during the Biden administration.
Smith led two historic prosecutions of Trump, one tied to efforts to challenge the 2020 election results and another over the handling of classified documents, both of which were ultimately dismissed after Trump won reelection in 2024, citing long-standing DOJ policy barring prosecutions of sitting presidents. A judge had already tossed the classified documents case before the election, although Smith had plans to appeal that ruling.
In his opening statement to lawmakers, Smith said “the decision to bring charges against President Trump was mine, but the basis for those charges rests entirely with President Trump and his actions, as alleged in the indictments returned by grand juries in two different districts.”
Smith stated that his office found evidence to show “beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the 2020 election results” and that he “repeatedly tried to obstruct justice” in the parallel investigation involving classified materials discovered at his Mar-a-Lago residence after an FBI raid in 2022.
“I made my decisions in the investigation without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election,” Smith said in his statement. “We took actions based on what the facts and the law required — the very lesson I learned early in my career as a prosecutor.”
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) has made clear the session will be confrontational. “We want to bring in Jack Smith, ask him all kinds of questions, not the least of which is this whole idea that he was going after what appears to be almost half the stinkin’ Republicans in Congress,” Jordan said ahead of the deposition, referring to the unprecedented subpoenas Smith issued for phone and records data belonging to Trump allies, including lawmakers.
Jordan warned that Smith’s willingness to answer questions will shape the committee’s next steps. “If he comes in and doesn’t answer questions, that’s going to be a problem,” he told Politico.
Smith’s legal team has said he plans to address what it views as public mischaracterizations of his work. Peter Koski, a former Justice Department official and member of Smith’s defense team, said Smith is “looking forward to answering the committee’s questions, sharing the legal basis for his investigative steps, and discussing the evidence of President Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his unlawful possession of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.”
Still, Smith is expected to decline to answer questions he believes are barred by grand jury secrecy rules or by judicial restrictions. A federal judge in Florida continues to block the release of Smith’s final report in the classified documents case, further limiting what he can disclose.
The House deposition is expected to serve as a foundation for possible future public hearings. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), who is leading a parallel Senate inquiry, said the House testimony will be critical groundwork. “Before you interview somebody, before you hold a hearing — you need information,” Johnson said. “Those would be the documents we’ll use when we interview him.”
JACK SMITH SUBPOENAED FOR HOUSE GOP INQUIRY OF TRUMP INDICTMENTS AND ARCTIC FROST
Meanwhile, Jordan on Tuesday demanded additional testimony from former Smith deputies Raymond Hulser, Kenneth Polite, Timothy Duree, and Molly Gaston over subpoenas issued in 2023 for phone data records belonging to members of Congress who communicated with Trump or his former attorney, Rudy Giuliani, around Jan. 6, 2021. Senate Republicans previously disclosed that the FBI had obtained phone records for at least nine GOP lawmakers, including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Ron Johnson (R-WI), and others.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has signaled interest in holding public hearings and questioning Smith after his deposition in the House. For now, Wednesday’s closed-door session is poised to shape the next phase of congressional scrutiny of one of the most controversial prosecutions in modern U.S. history.
