Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that investigators obtained Republican senators’ call records because President Trump and his allies tried to use the January 6 attack to delay certification of the 2020 election.
“My office did secure toll records from third parties, third-party telephone companies, in the course of our investigation that were records for members of Congress,” Smith said. He added that the records “were materially relevant to our investigation.”
Smith said investigators had evidence that Trump and his alleged co-conspirators were trying to “exploit the violence on January 6 in furtherance of their criminal scheme.”
“They were taking the fact that law enforcement officers had been brutally assaulted at this institution, and using that to seek to delay the proceedings further in violation of the law,” Smith said.
[NOTE: Toll records identify information such as the telephone numbers involved in a call, when it occurred and how long it lasted. They do not disclose what was said during the call.]
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) accused Smith’s team of collecting records far beyond what was necessary to investigate the Capitol attack.
“The Smith election case ultimately wasn’t just about Trump,” Grassley said. “It was about partisan agents and prosecutors mapping out the Republican apparatus.”
Grassley said investigators obtained information involving Republican lawmakers, donors and organizations from dates extending years beyond January 6. He characterized Smith’s investigation as “a partisan weapon that broke the rules.”
Smith denied partisanship was a factor and said the records helped investigators confirm communications relevant to the case.
“If Donald Trump had chosen to call a number of Democratic senators, we would have gotten toll records for Democratic senators,” Smith said during earlier testimony, explaining why his team largely sought phone records from Republicans.
Former special counsel Jack Smith said Tuesday that he stands by his decision to bring charges against President Donald Trump over his mishandling of classified documents and role in the Jan. 6 attack.
“Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President… pic.twitter.com/eU13LeFV18
— PBS News (@NewsHour) September 29, 2026
“I made those decisions without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election,” Smith said. “Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation.”
Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), the Ranking Member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Smith there was “appropriate concern” about investigative work involving Congress. But Durbin accused Republicans of using the hearing to distract from Trump’s actions after losing the election.
Durbin said “the aspersions cast on Mr. Smith nonstop are petty, personal and political,” denouncing them as “nothing but a smokescreen to distract from the president’s own clear unlawful conduct.”
Casting more than aspersions, Trump has repeatedly demanded that Smith be prosecuted, and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) referred Smith to the Justice Department in July, accusing him of making false statements to Congress about lawmakers’ records.
Addressing the threats against him at Tuesday’s hearing, Smith said: “I will not be silenced by the continued threats of prosecution from the president or others.”