Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) was warned that texts he used to accuse former special counsel Jack Smith of perjury were unvetted.
Republican staff on the Senate Judiciary Committee cautioned Schmitt ahead of Smith's testimony Tuesday that the Justice Department texts had not been verified, a source with direct knowledge of the conversation told MS NOW for a report on Wednesday. Schmitt went ahead and used them anyway.
According to the source, Schmitt had asked GOP staffers for material tying Smith's investigation of Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' Georgia case. His team was given access to the texts after showing interest, but committee staff made clear that checking the information was their job, the source said.
The Justice Department had shared materials with Republican Judiciary staff before the hearing, according to multiple sources. Committee Chair Chuck Grassley's (R-IA) team put together a memo on key information for the hearing but left the texts out of it, one source said.
Grassley also didn't give the texts to Democratic senators in advance, according to a Democratic staffer and another person briefed by committee staff. One of them said the move deepened Democrats' suspicion that congressional Republicans and the Trump administration were working together to undermine or trap Smith.
During the hearing, Schmitt claimed Smith had been at an Atlanta Hawks game on February 3, 2024, suggesting he may have been secretly coordinating with Willis. Smith looked puzzled and said he couldn't remember being in Atlanta, apart from possibly waiting in the airport for a connecting flight.
"I definitely did not go to a Hawks game," Smith said. "I'm sure of that."
Schmitt smiled at the answer.
"I think you've already perjured yourself," he said.
Minutes later, Smith remembered attending a women's college basketball game around that date. It was the Iowa Hawkeyes against the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland, played the same day as the Hawks game. MS NOW reported that the seat number cited in the staff texts doesn't exist at the Hawks' State Farm Arena.
Neither Schmitt's office nor the DOJ immediately responded to MS NOW's request for comment.