During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., questioned former special counsel Jack Smith about his whereabouts on a specific date in February 2024. The line of questioning quickly drew widespread attention after the lawmaker appeared to confuse two entirely different basketball teams sharing a similar name.
Schmitt attempted to establish a connection between Smith-who prosecuted two federal criminal cases against President Donald Trump-and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Willis investigated Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. The Republican senator claimed to possess text message evidence showing that Smith was in Atlanta for an Atlanta Hawks game on Feb. 3, 2024. According to Schmitt’s timeline, this supposedly occurred one day after Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade acknowledged their romantic relationship.
“What would you say if I had a series of text messages from your team that said you were in Atlanta at a Warrior-Hawks game on Feb. 3, 2024, the day after Willis and Wade announced their affair?” Schmitt asked the witness while flashing screenshots of text messages on a poster board.
Jack Smith Denies Attendance and Schmitt Escalates Attack
In response to the line of questioning, Smith testified that he had no recollection of being in Atlanta at that time and explicitly denied attending an Atlanta Hawks game. Following the denial, Schmitt accused the former special counsel of perjury and hurled verbal insults.
“You have weaponized the Department of Justice against political enemies to an extent that has never happened in the history of this country,” Schmitt told Smith during the exchange. “You will go down as a total dirtbag.”
Smith subsequently clarified his actual schedule for that day. The former special counsel stated that he recalled attending a women’s college basketball game in Maryland instead, featuring a matchup between the University of Maryland Terrapins and the University of Iowa Hawkeyes.
The Basketball Team Confusion
The senator’s accusation appeared to stem from a mix-up between the Atlanta Hawks, an NBA team, and the Iowa Hawkeyes women’s college basketball team, both of which incorporate “hawk” in their identities. The factual discrepancy quickly became a focal point of criticism from Democratic lawmakers during the committee proceedings.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., pushed back against Schmitt’s remarks later in the hearing, defending the former special counsel and criticizing the accuracy of the Republican senator’s claims.
“I think that people should have their facts straight before they accuse someone of being a dirtbag, and not get the teams wrong,” Klobuchar stated. She added that implying someone was involved in events in another city based on confused team names and subsequently hurling insults is behavior that warrants an apology.
Aftermath and Public Reactions
Following the committee hearing, Schmitt appeared on the conservative podcast “The Charlie Kirk Show.” Podcast host Andrew Kolvet characterized the exchange as a moment where the senator caught Smith out regarding the game, while neither individual addressed the team confusion during the broadcast.
In subsequent comments to HuffPost, Schmitt stood by his line of inquiry, suggesting that Smith could have misrepresented the facts. The senator claimed that Atlanta hosted the only major men’s basketball game matching those criteria at that time. Meanwhile, other congressional Republicans avoided commenting on the specific blunder when approached by reporters outside the hearing room.
