Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is hitting back at Democrats who criticized Republicans’ treatment of former special counsel Jack Smith – but he glossed over the embarrassing goof that set off the dispute.
In a letter to top committee Democrat Dick Durbin (D-IL), obtained exclusively by Politico, the 93-year-old Iowa Republican accused Democrats of embarrassing themselves at last month’s hearing by “falling over themselves” to defend Smith’s “unlawful and unconstitutional actions.”
“You see, your side can’t argue about Rules when your side doesn’t play by them,” Grassley wrote.
Grassley sent the letter less than 24 hours after Durbin demanded an apology for how committee Republicans antagonized Smith, who had brought criminal charges against President Donald Trump over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents.
Durbin singled out Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), who falsely accused Smith of attending an NBA Atlanta Hawks game and implying that Smith used the outing to coordinate with local prosecutors on Georgia charges against Trump, but it eventually came to light he had gone to a NCAA women's basketball game between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Maryland Terrapins.
According to Politico’s account of the letter, Grassley did not address Schmitt’s claim, but instead went after Democrats over past fights, accusing them of withholding or leaking information during the 2018 confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the 2025 battle over Emil Bove’s appeals court nomination.
He also faulted Democrats for not joining his investigations into Smith and into alleged corruption involving former President Joe Biden’s family.
“By now it should go without saying that my Democratic colleagues had every chance to assist in my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of these matters,” he wrote. “They all failed to lend a hand or request to join my oversight.”
Grassley said his staff is working to give Democrats access to the records Schmitt and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) cited at the hearing, but he added that “some records will not be shared with you until a later date.”
“The investigation is active, the hearing is not the end of my work,” Grassley wrote.
On X, he said Smith “should apologize for taking the bank records of 42 Iowans & 4,782 Americans.”
Spokespeople for Smith and Durbin did not immediately respond to requests for comment.