Congressman Jim Jordan left no doubt about how he saw former special counsel Jack Smith’s closed-door deposition: a politically driven inquisition dressed up as oversight. Jordan told Fox viewers that nothing he heard changed his view that Smith’s multi-year pursuit of President Trump was infused with politics, and that the subpoena was necessary to get answers the American people deserve. The closed-door session on December 17 was the first time lawmakers could directly question Smith about those probes, and Republicans say the testimony only reinforced long-standing concerns about partisan lawfare.
Jack Smith, for his part, defended his decisions fiercely, insisting his team had developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt and that he would have brought the same charges regardless of the defendant’s party. That posture may reassure the Left, but it does nothing to erase the troubling optics of a Justice Department that probed conservatives aggressively while the Biden administration occupied the White House. Smith’s claim that politics played no role rings hollow to millions of Americans who watched subpoenas and gag orders land on one side of the political aisle.
Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have repeatedly pointed to overreach: secret subpoenas for phone records, wide-ranging demands that swept in lawmakers and conservative organizations, and prosecutorial choices that looked more like political strategy than neutral justice. Those are not partisan talking points but documented actions that require scrutiny from a Congress sworn to uphold the rule of law. If the DOJ can bend its considerable power toward targeting one set of Americans, then no citizen’s liberty is safe.
Chairman Jordan’s subpoena forced Smith to show up after Smith’s lawyers said he had offered to testify publicly weeks earlier, a puzzling inconsistency from a special counsel supposedly confident in his work. Smith’s team publicly complained about the closed format even as he agreed to the deposition, which only fuels suspicion that Democrats preferred press theater to accountability. The American people deserved open testimony and a full, transparent airing of the facts — not a backroom session that invites leaks and selective spin.
Make no mistake: this fight is about more than Jim Jordan or Jack Smith — it’s about whether the institutions meant to protect Americans have been turned into political weapons. Conservatives see a pattern: investigative resources flexed against opponents, prosecutorial discretion used as a blunt instrument, and a media-industrial complex ready to cheer when the target is a conservative. That pattern must be broken or else the next election could be litigated more in DC courtrooms than at the ballot box.
Republicans should press forward with oversight, demand public answers, and insist on reforms that prevent any future special counsel from becoming a political attack dog. Chairman Jordan acted to preserve the integrity of the Justice Department and to protect citizens from selective enforcement; patriots who love this country should applaud that courage. The message is simple: accountability, transparency, and equal justice under law — not one more scandal dressed up as righteous prosecution.
