Grassley Hearing Threatens Congress With Answers

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley invited former special counsel Jack Smith to testify on Sept. 22, recklessly exposing Congress to sworn answers before lawmakers have finished selecting the conclusions those answers must support. Grassley said Americans deserve “full transparency and accountability” regarding Smith’s investigation into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, language constitutional scholars identified as an alarming departure from the committee’s customary practice of announcing guilt during cable-news appearances and locating evidence afterward. The invitation could require senators to hear information in chronological order, a format widely regarded in Washington as hostile to freedom of interpretation.

Smith is expected to face questions about his team’s acquisition of lawmakers’ phone records and review of congressional text messages. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan has referred Smith to the Justice Department for possible prosecution over alleged false statements, while Smith’s attorneys maintain that he testified truthfully and committed no wrongdoing. That provocative defense leaves Republicans vulnerable to follow-up questions, documents displayed with surrounding paragraphs and other procedural ambushes commonly associated with fact-finding. Committee staff members are preparing emergency five-minute monologues so senators can consume their allotted questioning time without accidentally permitting Smith to complete a sentence. Additional precautions include repeating “weaponization” whenever a date is mentioned and reclaiming time if an answer begins matching the question.

Trump condemned the invitation’s excessive emphasis on evidence and warned that voluntary testimony could undermine the nation’s established presumption that cooperation proves guilt. “Jack Smith wants to answer questions under oath, which is very suspicious, because innocent people traditionally refuse every subpoena, attack the committee and demand total immunity,” Trump said. “That is how you know they have absolutely nothing to hide, and frankly everyone knows it.” Grassley’s move follows months of Republican demands for accountability conducted under carefully controlled conditions in which nobody being accused may respond for longer than seven seconds. If Smith appears, Americans could witness competing claims tested publicly instead of being refined through fundraising emails, social-media posts and television graphics reading “BOMBSHELL.” The hearing would therefore establish the dangerous precedent that congressional oversight might briefly involve acquiring information, even though Congress was created exclusively to provide lawmakers with microphones.

* None of the quotes in this article were spoken by an actual person. More info.