US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on the day former US special counsel Jack Smith testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US, September 29, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) came under fire from critics after he used his opening remarks at a hearing to accuse former special counsel Jack Smith of targeting Republicans.
Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered the remarks Tuesday at a hearing where Smith was the panel's only witness, according to the committee.
As the hearing got underway, independent journalist Marcy Wheeler and former CIA officer and federal prosecutor Bryan Cunningham tore into Grassley's claims in a string of posts on X.
Smith brought two federal criminal cases against President Donald Trump, both since dismissed, NBC News reported.
"This hearing will highlight the committee's investigation into the special counsel's political work and weaponized conduct," Grassley said after thanking Smith for appearing. "Today, the special counsel's own record and those of his staff will tell the tale."
Grassley then dismissed a push for an earlier hearing led by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the committee's top Democrat, Just the News reported.
"[I]f we had followed that misguided and dangerous demand, we wouldn't have had most of the necessary records needed to show how Jack Smith's corrupt operation undermined the rule of law and threatened our very political institutions," Grassley said.
"Of course, that was the strategy of the Democrats. Call a premature hearing, so all we had were Mr. Smith's account that would bury the story. That's exactly the wrong way to do this, and it would have broken faith with the American people that Jack Smith has wronged," he continued.
Grassley also said Smith sought phone toll records for 16 members of Congress and obtained the content of lawmakers' communications in breach of the Constitution's Speech or Debate Clause, according to Just the News. Toll records show who called whom and when, and the clause protects lawmakers' legislative work from legal action.
He added that Smith's subpoenas targeted hundreds of Republican groups and individuals and named 87 Trump White House phones "knowing they'd include communications with members of Congress – 44 members, to be exact," according to the outlet.
"WOWOWOWOW. @chuckgrassley doesn't even know what Speech and Debate is!!!! Shocking confession of base ignorance of the law," Wheeler wrote on X.
"The 'Speech or Debate Clause' protects Members and staff (sometimes) from BEING PROSECUTED. It does NOT/NOT preclude legally authorized toll records collection in a properly-predicated investigation - you know, like when you run a criminal conspiracy to overthrow the government," Cunningham wrote.
"Chairman Grassley (approximately 900 years old) fails to mention that telephone toll records - and statements of Members of Congress - showed House Members attempted to assist an unlawful and Unconstitutional (and UnAmerican) Insurrection AND that a grand jury authorized the investigation," Cunningham wrote in an earlier post.
"Lawful collection of potential criminal evidence which includes information about Senators and Members of Congress happen SO OFTEN that there have been written procedures for handling such information (coordinated between Administrations and Congress) FOR AT LEAST 35 YEARS," he added.
"'His Future Staff.' Grassley apparently thinks Jack Smith has a time machine. Now THAT would actually be a story," Cunningham wrote.
"Now Old Man Chuck is suggesting he'll only talk to 'responsible media.' I wonder why @ChuckGrassley has done NOTHING about @HarmeetKDhillon unlawfully using customs summonses to spy on journalists?" Wheeler wrote.
Harmeet Dhillon serves as the Justice Department's assistant attorney general for civil rights, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
"THIS IS ELDER ABUSE!!! Nothing @ChuckGrassley is saying resembles basic reality. When will someone stop the abuse of Schumer's staffers of the very old man???" Wheeler posted minutes later.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Now @ChuckGrassley is WHINING bc JP Cooney shut down the Clinton Foundation investigation that Tim Thibault opened. Grassley is just ranting wildly incoherent things," she added.
J.P. Cooney was one of Smith's top deputies, NBC News has reported, and Tim Thibault is a former FBI agent, according to testimony submitted to the committee in March.
"Six b— fact-free questions. SCORE: GRASSLEY 0. Smith 6," Cunningham wrote later that morning, after Grassley began questioning Smith, according to CBS News.