This is a breakdown of the third hour of the House Judiciary Committee testimony of Special Counsel Jack Smith from January 22, 2026, subsequent hours will be published shortly.
I’ve removed long statements that don’t play much of a role into the investigation of Donald J. Trump or Special Counsel Jack Smith. I’ve also skipped over questions that had little value.
In some cases I’ve included questioning by Republicans just to show how desperate they’ve become to protect their glorious leader at all costs. The section here that is the most illuminating is between Rep. Jayapal and Rep. Scanlon.
I wanted to break this monster up into bitesized pieces so folks who don’t have five hours to sludge through will still have the opportunity to watch more of it than quick two-minute clips.
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA)
Johnson opened with a background about the riot on January 6th that included the number of people who died and were injured.
Johnson: Mr. Smith, I want to ask you about this website, because the Trump administration is using taxpayer dollars to lied to the American people about the events leading up to and the events taking place on January 6th, 2021. For example, this Trump propaganda site claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Mr. Smith, did your investigation uncover evidence sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Donald Trump knew that his claim that the election was stolen was false?
Smith: Yes, it did.
Johnson: And did your investigation uncover evidence sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Donald Trump publicly claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from him, while he privately acknowledged that he had lost the election.
Smith: Yes. We cited, instances of that during our, in our case.
Johnson: But yet here we see that on the fifth anniversary of the insurrection, the Trump White House propaganda machine is still promoting the stolen election theory on this government web page with a text box titled, quote, fraudulent, election stolen, election certified, and quote. The site also has a subsection reading in part, quote it be entrapment operation exposed. Mr. Smith, did your investigation develop any evidence to support the allegation that the FBI entrapped insurrectionists into committing crimes on January 6th?
Smith: Our investigation revealed that Donald Trump is the person who caused January 6th, that it was foreseeable to him and that he sought to exploit the violence.
Johnson then focused on Smith’s relationship with Joe Biden and if he had political bias.
Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX)
Gooden started his line of questioning about Smith’s swearing in ceremony. He was trying to prove that Smith was never sworn in as special counsel. This entire section is completely useless.
Rep. Jim Jordan continued to badger Smith about his swearing in ceremony before he made a pivot on the DOJ’s budget.
Jordan asked Smith about several payments to various confidential human sources.
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA)
Swalwell: Mr. Smith, I want you to have the utmost confidence in what you did. You did everything right. Harry Dunn, Danny Hodges, Sergeant Gonell, Mike Fanone, they did everything right. These guys, my Republican colleagues, are a joke. They’re wrong. History will harshly judge them. So I want you to lean in today. You have nothing to be ashamed of. You did everything right, sir. And I am so. These guys are so lucky. If they’re not under oath, because they would have to tell you what they really think of Trump. They call him crooked, they call him cruel. They call him a scumbag. I’ve heard you all say it. You’re lucky you’re not under Trump. But when the lights go on and the cameras are on your tiny, you’re small. You shrink. Everyone remembers Matt Gaetz coming over here after committee hearing. He would laugh at how stupid he thought Trump was. This is all a show. And Mr. Smith, you’re just the latest act that they’ve brought in. But they can’t erase what happened on January 6th because we saw it with our own eyes. Mr. Smith, after the mainstream media called the race for Biden about a week after the election, that Donald Trump concede the election?
Smith: He did not.
Swalwell: The next month, the Electoral College met in every state and voted. Biden is the winner that Donald Trump concede then?
Smith: He did not.
Swalwell: Shortly after that, the last court case that Donald Trump brought was thrown out, did he concede then?
Smith: No.
Swalwell: Is it your judgment, then, that only Donald Trump could have convened the mob in the size that it was assembled on January 6th?
Smith: Our assessment of the evidence is that, he is the person most responsible for what happened on January 6th. He caused what happened. It was foreseeable to him. And then, when it happened, he tried to exploit it, in furtherance of the conspiracy.
Swalwell: And you actually obtained indictments from a grand jury, right? You went to a grand jury and did something that the Trump administration has not been able to do is they go after their enemies, their cases are being thrown out. You obtained criminal indictments against the president, is that right?
Smith: That’s correct.
Swalwell then went on to praise Smith citing Edward Loya and James McGovern as references who both spoke highly of him.
