Kenneth Glad
In the high-pressure world of political investigations, tiny details matter. Lawyers spend countless hours sifting through old text messages to build an airtight case. But sometimes, a supposed bombshell turns out to be nothing more than a simple mix-up.
Republican Senator Eric Schmitt thought he had caught his target in a lie on Tuesday as he confronted former special counsel Jack Smith during a fiery Senate hearing. The conservative lawmaker claimed to possess a smoking gun.
He accused the former prosecutor of lying under oath. Schmitt pointed directly to an old text message exchange from 2024. This specific message allegedly placed Smith at an Atlanta Hawks basketball game down in Georgia.
That location was crucial for the Republican argument, writes TV 2. It would mean the prosecutor was in the same city where district attorney Fani Willis was building a separate election case against Donald Trump. The accusation hung heavy in the room.
A different ball game
Smith looked completely baffled by the questioning. He told the committee he had never met with prosecutors in Georgia. The former special counsel pushed back hard against the allegations.
He told the committee, “I was certainly not at a Hawks game. I am sure of that.”
Smith then cleared up the confusion. He recalled going to a women’s college basketball game on that February date, where the University of Maryland faced off against the Iowa Hawkeyes, according to TV 2.
Refusing to back down
The entire conspiracy theory collapsed instantly. The lawmaker had simply confused the Atlanta Hawks men’s professional team with the Iowa Hawkeyes women’s college roster.
Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar quickly stepped in. She suggested the Republican lawmaker needed to take back his false statement immediately.
She told the committee, “That is something that deserves an apology.”
The apology never arrived. Reporters from NBC News later asked Schmitt if he would formally retract his claim. The senator refused to back down.
Moving past the probe
The hearing focused on the federal cases that prosecutors dropped after Donald Trump won back the presidency in late 2024. Longstanding Justice Department policy prevents the criminal prosecution of a sitting president, which led directly to the dismissal of federal probes into alleged election interference and the handling of classified documents.
Jack Smith stepped down shortly before the inauguration, but conservative politicians continue to attack the abandoned cases. They maintain that the original investigations were politically motivated, demanding records and accusing prosecutors of political bias during the former special counsel’s testimony.
Sources: TV2, NBC News
