{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/durbin-delivers-opening-statement-during-judiciary-committee-hearing-with-former-special-counsel-jack-smith", "Durbin Delivers Opening Statement During Judiciary Committee Hearing With Former Special Counsel Jack Smith", "2026-09-29", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "IL", "Richard J. Durbin", "D000563", "www.durbin.senate.gov", "durbin", "https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "Durbin: \u201cThere was nothing untoward about Special Counsel Smith and his fellow prosecutors conducting this investigation. The aspersions cast on Mr. Smith nonstop are petty, personal, and political.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered an opening statement during today\u2019s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with former Special Counsel Jack Smith.\n\nIn November 2022, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Mr. Smith, a nonpartisan career prosecutor, as Special Counsel with authority to investigate President Trump\u2019s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, as well as Trump\u2019s effort to illegally retain highly classified government documents. As a result of these investigations, Special Counsel Smith indicted Trump on four counts in the election interference case and 40 counts in the classified documents case. Mr. Smith has offered to testify publicly under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee for almost a year. Instead of allowing Mr. Smith to testify, Senate Judiciary Republicans held wasteful hearings to relitigate the 2020 presidential election, despite numerous other issues worth examining within the Committee\u2019s jurisdiction.\n\nKey Quotes:\n\n\u201cRepublicans have spent months spreading baseless conspiracy theories about Mr. Smith\u2019s investigation instead of hearing from him directly. Nearly a year ago, Mr. Smith volunteered to testify under oath before this Committee, and we Democrats joined in that offer, saying let\u2019s get to the bottom of it. Put him under oath and let\u2019s ask questions.\u201d\n\n\u201cHouse Republicans called Mr. Smith to testify in January, but Senate Republicans refused his offer to testify and instead [said they would hold] eight hearings on [Mr. Smith\u2019s] supposed wrongdoing\u2014never calling him directly. In fact, this Committee held only three hearings to question telecom companies for following the law and hear from MAGA loyalist witnesses with no first-hand knowledge of Mr. Smith\u2019s investigation. Finally, Senate Republicans relented, and we have today\u2019s hearing.\u201d\n\n\u201cHere are the facts: Mr. Smith was tasked with investigating President Trump\u2019s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and his unlawful retention and distribution of sensitive, classified documents after he left office\u2026 President Trump\u2019s efforts to steal the election reached a crescendo on January 6, 2021, when he exhorted his supporters at a rally by the White House to \u2018fight like hell,\u2019 and told them \u2018we\u2019re going to the Capitol.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cWhen he finally left office in 2021, President Trump seized boxes of classified documents containing top-secret information on our defense and weapon capabilities, our nuclear programs, and potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attacks. These were government documents the President took, not his personal effects\u2014yet he stored these extremely sensitive documents haphazardly in a Mar-a-Lago ballroom, a bathroom shower, his bedroom, and other unsecured spaces.\u201d\n\n\u201cIn both his theft and distribution of these classified documents and his attempts to steal the 2020 election, Trump demonstrated a wanton disdain for the United States, the will of its people, and our national security.\u201d\n\n\u201cInvestigating misconduct by government officials requires scrupulous care. Thankfully, Mr. Smith, who is here today and will be under oath, and his team of nonpartisan, career prosecutors had the necessary experience to tackle this assignment\u2026 But in return for [routine investigative activities], Mr. Smith and his special counsel staff have had their names dragged through the mud by the MAGA machine\u2026 This is a result of President Trump\u2019s campaign, aided and abetted by Congressional Republicans, to whitewash the history of the 2020 election and the insidious attack on this Capitol building.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is sad to see my colleagues contort themselves to support President Trump\u2019s lies. I expect that will continue today because of the limits placed on Mr. Smith\u2019s ability to testify by MAGA loyalist Judge Aileen Cannon and the Trump Administration. Judge Cannon has enjoined the release of Volume II of the Special Counsel report on the classified documents investigation, and Mr. Smith himself is enjoined from providing information about that investigation unless the Justice Department has made that information public.\u201d\n\n\u201cLet me be clear: There was nothing untoward about Special Counsel Smith and his fellow prosecutors conducting this investigation. The aspersions cast on Mr. Smith nonstop are petty, personal, and political. They are nothing but a smokescreen to distract from President Trump\u2019s own unlawful conduct.\u201d\n\n\u201cAfter years of whitewashing President Trump\u2019s crimes, my Republican colleagues can finally raise their concerns with the one person who can best address them. Maybe this will finally free the Committee from the endless debate on baseless conspiracy theories and allow us to address real problems affecting the American people.\u201d\n\nWhen Trump was re-elected president in November 2024, Special Counsel Smith moved to dismiss the cases against him based on the Department of Justice\u2019s position that the Constitution forbids the federal indictment and prosecution of a sitting president. Following the dismissal, Special Counsel Smith provided Garland a two-volume report outlining his findings in both investigations. While Garland released Volume I, concerning the election interference case, Judge Aileen Cannon enjoined DOJ from releasing Volume II, concerning the classified documents case.\n\nIn October 2025, and again in February 2026, Durbin led all Senate Judiciary Democrats in sending a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) calling on him to allow former Special Counsel Jack Smith to testify before the Committee. In their letters, the Senators also urged Chairman Grassley to request DOJ release Volume II of Special Counsel Smith\u2019s report.\n\nVideo of Durbin\u2019s opening statement in Committee is available here.\n\nAudio of Durbin\u2019s opening statement in Committee is available here.\n\nFootage of Durbin\u2019s opening statement in Committee is available here for TV Stations.\n\n-30-", 1, "2026-09-30T10:57:52Z", "2026-09-30T10:59:04Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/durbin-delivers-opening-statement-during-judiciary-committee-hearing-with-former-special-counsel-jack-smith"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6391461249440908, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}