Jack Smith deposition: House Judiciary Committee releases video and transcript on New Year’s Eve – CNN Politics
Politics 7 min read
House Judiciary Committee releases video and transcript of Jack Smith deposition
By Hannah Rabinowitz, Tierney Sneed, and Casey Gannon
Jack Smith, right, is seen during his deposition in a still from a video released by the House Judiciary GOP on December 31, 2025. House Judiciary GOPThe House Judiciary Committee on New Year’s Eve released a transcript and video of its closed-door hearing with Jack Smith, the former special counsel who led the two failed prosecutions of President Donald Trump.
The deposition conducted earlier this month lasted more than eight hours, during which Smith was grilled by lawmakers over the twin criminal investigations into Trump – one probing the mishandling and retention of classified documents and a second inquiry into his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election.
“The decision to bring charges against President Trump was mine, but the basis for nine of those charges rests entirely with President Trump and his actions, as alleged in the 10 indictments returned by grand juries in two different districts,” Smith told the committee.
Republican lawmakers have lambasted the investigations as alleged “weaponization” of the justice system against the president and his allies, particularly criticizing Smith for subpoenaing the phone records of lawmakers who spoke with Trump about the election scheme.
Giving testimony was a significant risk for Smith as Trump has called for him to be prosecuted.
CNN has reached out to Smith for comment.
Here are the highlights of Smith’s testimony:
Toll records were ‘very important’
The GOP-led committee grilled Smith on his office’s move to obtain toll records from members of Congress, meaning phone records showing whom lawmakers had called and the time of the calls. Toll records do not provide the content of phone calls.
Smith said that evidence was “very important” for showing Trump’s alleged criminal intent in the election subversion case.
“Having a record that is a hard record about a time, and the timeline of that afternoon was particularly important because the violence had started. The president refused to stop it,” Smith said.
“He endangered the life of his vice president, and then he’s getting calls, and not just – not calls from Democrats, not calls from people he doesn’t know – calls from people he trusts, calls from people he relies on – and still refuses to come to the aid of the people at the Capitol,” he added.
Asked about calls from lawmakers for “accountability” because their phone records were obtained, Smith said Trump was ultimately responsible for their records being subpoenaed.
“These records are people, in the case of the senators, Donald Trump directed his co-conspirators to call these people to further delay the proceedings. He chose to do that.”
‘Grave risk of obstruction of justice’
Smith also faced sharp questions about whether his pursuit of lawmakers’ toll records violated the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause, which shields legislators from certain law enforcement actions related to their legislative duties.
Smith said his team consulted with Justice Department experts and that he was not aware of court precedents that would have prohibited those subpoenas. He also defended the move by his office to obtain orders from court that prevented phone companies from disclosing to the lawmakers that their records had been turned over to investigators.
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