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Republican Senator Eric Schmitt attempted to accuse special prosecutor Jack Smith of perjury based on a mistaken identity of a college basketball team, leading to a Senate hearing debacle. Smith denied attending an Atlanta Hawks game and was later vindicated by footage showing him at an Iowa Hawkeyes game instead.
In a US Senate hearing on Tuesday, Republicans attempted to incriminate Jack Smith, the special prosecutor who twice charged Donald Trump with criminal offences. Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri pursued Smith over an alleged attendance at an NBA game in Atlanta on February 3, 2024.
Senate Hearing Spectacle Unfolds
The hearing was meant to examine Smith's alleged abuse of authority, but it quickly turned into a spectacle of sloppiness. Schmitt brought a large cardboard poster that purported to show text messages proving Smith was in Atlanta for a game between the Atlanta Hawks and the Golden State Warriors. The timing was significant because the game occurred the day after Fani Willis, then district attorney of Fulton County, Georgia, admitted to an intimate relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
Willis had also brought charges against Trump related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. At the hearing, Schmitt implied that Smith might have colluded with Willis and Wade because he was supposedly in Atlanta when their relationship became public. But Smith denied attending the game. I definitely did not go to a Hawks game, I'm sure of that, he said, appearing mystified.
He also emphatically denied ever meeting Willis and Wade during his time as special prosecutor. Schmitt claimed he believed Smith had just perjured himself. Once Smith was able to read the messages on the poster, his memory was jogged. He realized the basketball game he attended around that time was between the University of Iowa Hawkeyes, not the Atlanta Hawks, and took place at the University of Maryland, not Atlanta.
The game featured Caitlin Clark, a Team USA member widely considered the most popular women's basketball player of this era. Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota pointed out that Schmitt had likely confused the two team names. You are calling a witness a dirtbag, Klobuchar told Schmitt. I think that people should have their facts straight before they accuse someone of being a dirtbag, and not get the teams wrong.
Video Evidence Amplifies Mistake
The mistake was further amplified when Meidas Touch, a progressive media outlet, unearthed footage that appeared to show Smith in the bleachers at the Hawkeyes game in Maryland on the night in question. The attempted gotcha had all the hallmarks of a coordinated political hit. That morning, Axios speculated that Schmitt was favorably viewed by Vice President JD Vance as a possible 2028 running mate.
As Schmitt made his case, MAGA media commentators including Sean Hannity and Benny Johnson pumped the content out to millions of followers. In the ordinary run of events, such a public howler would warrant an apology and retraction. But in the shoot first, aim later era of US politics, that did not occur. Schmitt went on right-wing channel Real America's Voice, where he was praised for his so-called gotcha moment, with no recognition of the factual error.
Later, when questioned by TMZ, Schmitt did not relent. It was not a mistake, he insisted. He gave his answer and I guess that's his answer; we'll take him at his word that he wasn't in Atlanta. The whole spectacle was based on the notion that Smith's presence in Atlanta, a metropolitan area of 6.5 million people, was somehow a smoking gun suggesting collusion with Fani Willis.
Smith Defends Prosecution Decisions
Smith stood by his decisions to bring charges against Trump, saying his investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation. He said if asked whether to prosecute a former president today based on the same facts, he would, regardless of party.
Democratic Party chairman Ken Martin concluded on X: Eric Schmitt spent all that time rehearsing his big Jack Smith perjury gotcha and forgot to check whether the Atlanta Hawks and Iowa Hawkeyes were the same team. The clumsy attempt to incriminate Smith was not the only notable sloppiness in Washington on Tuesday. When Trump signed a one-page agreement with the chief executives of major artificial intelligence companies, including Anthropic and OpenAI, his signature block read: President of the Unites States.
It was a harmless typo, but another example of the administration's pattern of shooting first and aiming later.
theage 
brisbanetimes:How a sloppy Republican attempt to ensnare a Trump enemy backfired spectacularlyThis story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
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Senate Hearing Tests Jack Smith Over Alleged Atlanta VisitDuring a US Senate hearing, Republican senators questioned special prosecutor Jack Smith regarding his alleged attendance at an NBA game in Atlanta on February 3, 2024. The inquiry aimed to link Smith to Georgia district attorney Fani Willis and her then-prosecutor Nathan Wade, whose intimate relationship caused legal complications in cases against Donald Trump. Smith denied attending the game or meeting the pair, while Senator Eric Schmitt suggested the prosecutor may have perjured himself by denying the visit.
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