Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley has fired back at Democrats who demanded an apology over the treatment of former special counsel Jack Smith at a recent hearing.
In a letter to top committee Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois, the 93-year-old Iowa Republican accused Democrats of embarrassing themselves by “falling over themselves” to defend Smith’s “unlawful and unconstitutional actions.”
Grassley sent the letter less than 24 hours after Durbin formally demanded that Republican colleagues apologize for how they treated Smith during the committee hearing.
Smith had brought criminal charges against President Donald Trump over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents, before those cases were dropped.
The dispute was sparked when Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt launched accusations at Smith during the hearing and called the former Justice Department official a “dirtbag.”
Schmitt’s staff displayed a poster purporting to show text messages between Smith and security personnel about his attendance at an Atlanta Hawks NBA game.
Smith had actually attended a basketball game in a different state on the date in question, and subsequent reporting confirmed the same.
Schmitt nonetheless accused Smith of perjury for denying attendance at the game during the hearing, making the charge before committee members could verify the underlying records.
Democrats on the panel asked for but did not receive copies of the poster, preventing them and Smith from clearly reviewing its contents.
Durbin argued the situation “caused needless confusion, slowed down the business of the Committee, introduced the possibility that false information would be entered uncontested into the record, and created an embarrassing stain on one of the most important committees in Congress.”
Durbin’s letter called on Grassley to “immediately provide these and all other documents that you have withheld, commit to fully complying with Senate rules in the future, and apologize to Mr. Smith on behalf of the Committee for the unacceptable personal attacks and false accusations of perjury he faced during this hearing.”
Grassley did not address Schmitt’s disputed claim directly, instead attacking Democrats over past confrontations including the 2018 confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
He also faulted Democrats over the 2025 battle surrounding Emil Bove’s appeals court nomination and their refusal to join his investigations into Smith and alleged Biden family corruption.
On the disputed records, Grassley said his staff is working on access and has offered Durbin a meeting, but cautioned some material would be withheld because “the investigation is active.”
The hearing, titled “Oversight of Jack Smith’s Abuse of Authority and the Targeting of Republicans and Related Matters,” followed nearly two years of Grassley’s allegations that Smith improperly collected phone records of dozens of members of Congress.
Grassley has also accused Smith of gathering information on Republican-affiliated organizations and individuals during the Trump-related probes.
Shortly after noon on Thursday, Grassley posted on X that “Jack Smith should apologize for taking the bank records of 42 Iowans and 4,782 Americans.”
When asked for a formal response to Durbin’s letter, a Grassley spokesperson pointed to the senator’s earlier comments to Newsmax’s “The Record with Greta Van Susteren,” which did not include an apology.
