Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee today sharply criticized former special counsel Jack Smith over his investigation of President Trump, which produced more than 40 criminal charges that have since been dropped.

GOP lawmakers accused Smith of partisanship, but as Ali Rogan reports, Smith defended his conduct, saying the law required him to act.

Do you swear a firm under penalty of perjury that the testimony you're about to give is...

The first public hearing for former special counsel Smith...

I do.

Quickly became a sharp, partisan debate.

And with that, I yield back in disgust of this witness.

These guys, my Republican colleagues, are a joke.

Even as Smith trying to stay above the political fray...

I am not a politician, and I have no partisan loyalties.

As he defended his more than two-year investigation into President Trump.

We followed the facts, and we followed the law.

Where that led us was to an indictment of an unprecedented criminal scheme to block the

peaceful transfer of power.

Smith's team charged Trump with conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election he lost,

culminating in the January 6th Capitol riot. Smith and the Department

of Justice dropped the charges after Trump was reelected. A separate case and 40 criminal charges

related to classified documents Trump kept at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida were dismissed by a

federal judge in 2024, who said Smith had been unlawfully

appointed.

Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged

in criminal activity.

...