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\n A version of this essay first appeared in\u00a0Crash Course<\/a>, Salon’s free morning newsletter.\u00a0Sign up for early access<\/a> to articles like this, plus more of Salon\u2019s bold journalism on how policies, movements and culture wars affect real people. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n It was a bit tense watching Jack Smith get grilled before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. During his testimony, the former special counsel defended himself against accusations of partisanship in his failed effort to prosecute President Donald Trump two years ago. The chaos of the current era has made the 2024 presidential campaign feel like it was a decade ago, but it\u2019s important to recall that Smith secured indictments on Trump\u2019s role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and the other on his alleged mishandling of government records, including the classified documents he had stored at Mar-a-Lago. Both cases fell apart as Trump was elected to a second term.<\/p>\n Now Republicans, including Trump, are pushing for Smith himself to be prosecuted. This wasn\u2019t the first time<\/a> he has been dragged before Congress so lawmakers could get the soundbites needed for Fox News hits. But to his credit, Smith doubled down and said he would prosecute the president all over again.<\/p>\n \u201cOur investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation,\u201d Smith said<\/a> during the hearing, adding, \u201cIf asked whether to prosecute a former president today, based on the same facts, I would do so regardless of whether that president was a Republican or a Democrat.\u201d<\/p>\n Republicans took the opportunity to lob insults and accusations at Smith for hours. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz accused<\/a> him of bringing \u201cthe Department of Justice into disrepute,\u201d while Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy was more graphic, telling Smith \u201cYou make me want to throw up in my mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri claimed Smith \u201cwill go down as a total dirtbag\u201d and also attempted to corner the former special prosecutor into possible perjury, accusing<\/a> him of attending an Atlanta Hawks game in 2024 as a pretext for meeting with Fani Willis, the local district attorney who prosecuted Trump in Georgia. But Schmitt \u2014 or some staffers who will soon be looking for employment \u2014 apparently confused the Hawks and the Iowa Hawkeyes \u2014 which are different teams, as it turns out. Smith had watched the Hawkeyes play in Maryland. (As a non-sports person, I confess I might have made the same mistake, except I check my facts.) Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., did Schmitt the favor of pointing out his error, quipping \u201cPerhaps you should have looked at it more carefully.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n This only seemed to further anger Schmitt, who is reportedly angling<\/a> to be Vice President JD Vance\u2019s running mate in 2028.<\/p>\n Start your day with essential news from Salon. The whole bit, including a poster board of Smith\u2019s blown-up text messages, was amazingly lazy, even for this Congress. It seemed as if some aide suffering from conspiracy-brain didn\u2019t bother to check the details, or maybe they asked ChatGPT for help. Still, getting the facts wrong probably won\u2019t hurt Schmitt. He got in the abusive remarks that will earn him MAGA\u2019s seal of approval.<\/p>\n Not surprisingly, Democrats also defended Smith. \u201cThe aspersions cast on Mr. Smith nonstop are petty, personal and political,\u201d Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin said. Cory Booker of New Jersey claimed \u201cThis is gaslighting of the American people,\u201d telling Smith, \u201cI am so sorry that they\u2019re attempting to put investigators on trial while ignoring the extraordinary conduct that that they are duty bound to really investigate.\u201d<\/p>\n Maybe this all seems like theatrics, more fodder for the cable news spectacle. But the stakes for Smith are real, and this charade could also carry severe consequences for Americans. Since the moment he returned to office, Trump has worked overtime to take down his enemies. That hasn\u2019t been too successful yet \u2014 emphasis on yet \u2014 but this is about much more than potentially putting Smith behind bars. By playing the victim, the president benefits from controlling the narrative, and perhaps rewriting history, which becomes even more critical as we approach the midterms and he continues promoting the lie he won the 2020 election. So Smith continuing to give the president and his MAGA trolls the proverbial finger isn\u2019t just satisfying \u2014 it\u2019s necessary.\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m not a Smith fanboy, though I certainly admire him for serving<\/a> as a specialist prosecutor investigating war crimes in the Kosovo War. It feels misguided to turn public figures like Dr. Anthony Fauci or Sen. Jon Ossoff<\/a>, D-Ga., into heroes or thirst traps just for doing their jobs. Still, it\u2019s worth noticing when someone in the hot seat does more than pay lip service to the idea of a just and accountable society, knowing that the consequences extend much further than their own personal freedom.<\/p>\n
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