A new review of text messages behind MAGA Sen. Eric Schmitt’s (R-MO) botched attack on Jack Smith reveals a “remarkable detail," The Hill reported Thursday. Neither basketball team at the center of the controversy was actually named in the texts.
Schmitt, a Missouri Republican, questioned the former special counsel about attending an Atlanta Hawks game while trying to connect him to Georgia prosecutors investigating President Donald Trump.
Smith instead recalled watching Caitlin Clark play for the Iowa Hawkeyes in Maryland. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) suggested Schmitt had confused the similar-sounding names.
“But a review of the volley of text messages turned over by the Justice Department suggests that was not the source of confusion,” The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch reported.
“Neither the Hawks nor the Hawkeyes appear to be referenced in the text messages," she wrote in the Thursday bombshell report.
The messages largely centered around seating arrangements and meeting up inside the arena. Schmitt’s team appeared to focus on the game’s date to determine where Smith had been, according to The Hill.
“There were also other signs sprinkled into text messages received by the Senate Judiciary Committee that the prosecutors were Iowa fans: a later message referencing Clark,” the report said.
The Hill also cited an MS NOW report that Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley’s staff warned Schmitt’s team the information was unverified and needed checking.
The MAGA senator still defended his questioning.
“My job is to ask the questions, and his job is to answer the questions,” he said.