What played out in Congress this week was less a sober accounting and more a political theater where former special counsel Jack Smith stood under the glare and tried to justify a sprawling, expensive pursuit of a political opponent. Smith testified about his two investigations and the decisions that led to high-profile indictments, but his calm legalese did little to soothe the growing Republican conviction that the Department of Justice crossed lines it should never cross in a free country.
Republican members zeroed in on concrete examples of overreach, from subpoenas for lawmakers’ phone metadata to other investigative tactics that smelled of selective enforcement rather than blind justice. Lawmakers from both the House Judiciary Committee and rank-and-file conservatives blasted those moves as inconsistent with constitutional protections and normal prosecutorial restraint. Those concerns were aired loudly during the hearing and in every corner of conservative media.
South Carolina Rep. Russell Fry didn’t mince words on National Report, arguing that Smith “went beyond the norm” and that the whole affair looked like a politicized campaign dressed up as law enforcement. Fry’s criticism echoed what millions of Americans already suspect: that powerful institutions were used to target a political rival, costing taxpayers millions and eroding faith in our justice system. His tough questioning on the committee and blunt commentary afterward captured a broad conservative outrage.
Smith, for his part, insisted his team followed DOJ policy and repeatedly invoked the principle that no one is above the law, trying to cast the episode as routine oversight rather than a partisan hunt. That defense will not satisfy voters who watched subpoenas sweep up communications of elected lawmakers and who saw high-profile charges evaporate once the political winds changed. The discrepancy between Smith’s legal posture and the public’s sense of fairness is why this story will not fade.
Conservatives should welcome vigorous, nonpartisan investigations, but what we saw smells of selective prosecution and an institutional bias that must be rooted out. This hearing, and the disclosures about investigative tactics, should spur real reforms: clearer limits on special counsel authority, stronger protections for lawmakers’ communications, and teeth for congressional oversight so the DOJ can never again be used as a political cudgel. Media talking points won’t fix this; structural change will.
Hardworking Americans deserve a justice system that protects liberty, not a political racket that punishes opposition. Republicans in Congress and the voters they represent must keep pressing for accountability and safeguards that restore trust in our institutions. If Washington’s entrenched elites refuse to clean house, the American people will do it at the ballot box — and that is a lesson no partisan prosecutor should ignore.
