Parker Molloy: House Republicans released the 255-page transcript of Jack Smith’s closed-door deposition on New Year’s Eve. You know, the day when absolutely nobody is paying attention to the news. The day when political operatives dump things they don’t want people to see.
Funny how that works.
Smith testified before the House Judiciary Committee on December 17th, spending an entire day answering questions about his investigations into Donald Trump. Republicans had been demanding this testimony for months, framing it as part of their “weaponization” investigation. They got what they asked for. And then they released it when America was busy watching the ball drop.
The Independent: During the testimony, Smith offered a confident assessment of the integrity of his work and his team’s chances of securing a conviction, had they been allowed to go to trial. The former special counsel, who resigned shortly before Trump took office, told lawmakers that the Republican was “by a large measure” the person “most responsible” for the alleged conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results and the January 6 Capitol riot that marked its stunning conclusion.
“These crimes were committed for his benefit,” Smith said. “The attack that happened at the Capitol, part of this case, does not happen without him. The other co-conspirators were doing this for his benefit.”
The testimony also highlighted the complicated role Republicans played in the final moments of the 2020 campaign. Smith said much of his office’s conspiracy case rested on evidence from GOP allies, who included senior lawmakers serving in legislatures such as Michigan and Arizona, people who saw firsthand how the Republican was allegedly “preying on the party allegiance of people who supported him.”
“Our case was built on, frankly, Republicans who put their allegiance to the country before the party,” Smith said. That same loyalty didn’t extend back from Trump to his top allies, Smith continued.
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