On Thursday, January 22, 2026, former special counsel Jack Smith took the witness chair before the House Judiciary Committee for a public hearing that brought months of controversy into full view. The committee convened to examine Smith’s investigations into President Trump and the methods his office used, a moment that Republicans said would finally put the deep state’s behavior on the record.
Smith spent his opening minutes insisting he stood by every decision, telling lawmakers that “no one should be above the law” while defending indictments that were later shelved when Trump was re-elected. He framed his work as dispassionate law enforcement, but his calm words did nothing to soothe Americans who watched prosecutors weaponize their power against political opponents.
Republican members responded with fury, pointing to heavy-handed tactics like the seizure of toll records from members of Congress and the use of gag orders that prevented those lawmakers from even knowing they were surveilled. Conservatives rightly raised constitutional alarms — from potential violations of the speech or debate clause to the basic principle that the Justice Department should never be used as a political cudgel.
The hearing also highlighted the paybacks that followed: experienced prosecutors and staff who worked Smith’s cases were purged once power shifted, and an inspector review remains active amid questions about whether the whole operation crossed legal lines. These are not abstract complaints; they are concrete consequences of a Justice Department that has too often acted like a partisan instrument instead of a neutral arbiter.
On Newsmax’s Newsline, conservative voices like attorney Jesse Binnall and former Trump aide Rick Gates zeroed in on the hearing and argued that the facts on display point squarely toward misconduct — with Binnall bluntly saying there’s at least a conspiracy case to be made against Jack Smith. That perspective matters because it comes from seasoned practitioners who see through legal theater and spot when prosecutions look more like political operations than genuine pursuit of justice.
Chairman Jim Jordan and his Republican colleagues made clear they won’t let these abuses slide, promising oversight and accountability as the only remedy to restore faith in our institutions. Patriotic Americans should welcome that resolve: a Justice Department that targets one political faction while sparing another is a threat to liberty, and it must be exposed and reformed.
If this episode teaches anything, it’s that the fight for the rule of law runs both ways — and right now hardworking Americans must demand impartiality, not performative prosecutions. We owe it to the Republic to press for full transparency, to hold unelected prosecutors to account, and to make sure the system protects every citizen equally rather than serving as a weapon against political foes.
