Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is under fire from Democrats for hiding documents related to former special counsel Jack Smith that led to Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) embarrassing himself in a recent nationally televised hearing.
A letter led by ranking member Dick Durbin (D-IL), obtained by Politico, centers on Schmitt, who at a hearing last month suggested Smith secretly attended an NBA game in Atlanta on Feb. 3, 2024, to meet with prosecutors working on the Georgia election case against President Donald Trump. Schmitt displayed a giant poster of text messages from Smith’s team to make his case.
Smith denied it and Democrats say the texts “established only that Senator Schmitt had not done the basic due diligence of verifying a document before relying on it.”
The episode, the Democrats wrote, “caused needless confusion, slowed down the business of the Committee, introduced the possibility that false information would be entered uncontested into the record, and created an embarrassing stain on one of the most important committees in Congress.”
Democrats say they didn’t get the materials Schmitt used ahead of the hearing, so they were “forced to synthesize these baseless accusations and respond in real time," Politico reported. They also pointed to another record they say wasn’t shared in advance: a readout of an Aug. 17, 2024, call between Smith and the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, which Schmitt and fellow Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley both cited at the hearing.
“We ask that you immediately provide all committee records that you have withheld, commit to fully complying with Senate Rules … going forward, and apologize to Mr. Smith on behalf of the Committee,” the Democrats wrote.
Grassley spokesperson Clare Slattery responded in a statement: “it’s Jack Smith who owes an apology to the thousands of Americans he and his staff ran roughshod over.”