Congress

Jack Smith, who quietly worked to convict Trump, is ready for his close-up

Published

5 months ago

January 22, 2026

For years, Jack Smith — the prosecutor with the best chance of putting President Donald Trump in prison — was an elusive figure. His work was cloaked in secrecy and his voice was seldom heard aloud, save for a few choice utterances at carefully scripted news conferences. Public sightings were rare, and he was best known by a single scowling image from a 2020 appearance at The Hague.

Thursday morning, however, Smith’s low profile will disappear when he becomes one of the most-watched people in Washington.

Smith is set to testify at a public hearing of the House Judiciary Committee that’s likely to be aired live across the country. The veteran prosecutor is prepared to tell the public what he’s already told lawmakers behind closed doors: A jury would have found Trump guilty of a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, had Smith been able to move forward with the evidence he amassed during his time as special counsel with the Biden Department of Justice.

Smith is expected to stand behind his decision to prosecute Trump, and say doing otherwise would have been “shirk[ing] my duties as a prosecutor and a public servant,” according to prepared remarks obtained by Blue Light News.

“I made my decisions without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election,” Smith plans to say. “President Trump was charged because the evidence established that he willfully broke the very laws that he took an oath to uphold.”

Because Trump won reelection in 2024 and there’s a Justice Department prohibition against charging or trying a sitting president, Smith dropped the charges he brought in the election subversion case. Smith was also pushing charges against Trump for hoarding classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

“Highly sensitive information was held in non-secure locations, including a bathroom and a ballroom where events and gatherings took place,” Smith is expected to tell members of the Judiciary Committee. “Tens of thousands of people came to the social club during the time period when those classified documents were stored there.”

For Democrats, the hearing will be an opportunity for Smith to describe in painstaking detail evidence of Trump’s criminality and threat to the transfer of presidential power in 2020 — when he spent months pressuring elected officials to overturn the election results based on false claims of fraud. Smith has argued that Trump’s efforts fueled the Jan. 6 mob that attacked the Capitol, which the prosecutor says Trump attempted to exploit to continue his effort to stop Joe Biden from taking office.

“I’m thrilled the Republican chairman is having Jack Smith testify publicly, because Jack Smith is going to tell the American people all the evidence that he has collected against Donald Trump and why Donald Trump was lawfully indicted, and why Donald Trump violated federal law,” Rep. Ted Lieu of California, the vice-chair of the House Democratic Caucus, told reporters Wednesday morning. “And American people are going to hear that. And I encourage everyone to watch.”

Republicans, meanwhile, have fumed over revelations last year that Smith secretly obtained the phone records for several sitting GOP senators during his election subversion investigation.

“He’s got a lot to answer for,” Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Wednesday regarding Smith. “These are answers that have been, I think, long overdue.”

House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan’s decision to allow Smith to answer lawmakers’ questions in a public forum came after he initially would only agree to let Smith sit for a closed-door interview, the contents of which Jordan later released in the form of a transcript and an hours-long video recording. That session revealed a prosecutor with firm command of the details of his case and ready answers to Republicans’ toughest queries.

Smith is expected to reiterate, during his Thursday testimony, that the choices he made as special counsel complied with Justice Department policy — eschewing accusations from Republicans that he went rogue in an effort to take Trump down. He will assert that he would prosecute a former president of either party under the same conditions, according to his prepared remarks.

He will also describe the evidence his team built to demonstrate Trump’s criminal behavior and why that proof extended beyond a reasonable doubt.

Jordan, asked Wednesday whether he was concerned about Smith sharing damaging information about the president to a live audience, replied, “We’re just focused on letting our members ask questions, letting the American people see.”

But in what is likely to be a highly confrontational and hours-long hearing, Republicans are expected to pummel the former special counsel for what they see as a political vendetta against the GOP — this time knowing their audience includes the public and, just as likely, Trump himself.

Trump made clear Wednesday his mind is still on the 2020 election, insisting repeatedly — and falsely — to a gathering of European leaders that he prevailed in the contest but was robbed by fraud. He also said that people would soon be prosecuted for “rigging” that election. Smith told lawmakers last month that he expected to face Trump’s wrath and retribution for his work as special counsel, potentially in the form of criminal charges.

“Jack Smith is a continuation of this weaponization of government against the president,” Jordan said in an interview. “It’s been a decade long ordeal.”

Republicans also could stand to benefit from the limitations on what Smith will and won’t be able to divulge at the Thursday hearing. As with his closed-door testimony last month, Smith’s remarks will be hamstrung by a court order sealing the second volume of his report around the classified documents case. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who oversaw that investigation and initially dismissed the charges against Trump and labeled Smith’s appointment as special counsel illegal, has since barred the Justice Department from disclosing his final report in the case.

Trump urged Cannon Wednesday, on the eve of Smith’s testimony, to make her order permanent, saying anything less would legitimize what he described as Smith’s effort “to imprison and destroy the reputations of President Trump and his former co-defendants.”

Smith is expected to stand firm.

“No one should be above the law in our country and the law required that he be held to account,” he is expected to say. “So that is what I did.”

Mia McCarthy and Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

Congress

Congressional Black Caucus blasts Slotkin over her calls for new leadership in the House

Published

12 hours ago

June 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Congressional Black Caucus is emphatically declaring its support for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — and denouncing Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s call for new leadership in Congress.

In a statement posted to social media on Friday, the entirely Democratic CBC declared that it stands united behind the nation’s first Black minority leader of the House. The caucus accused the Michigan senator of “posturing for higher office in 2028” and called attention to her votes to approve multiple members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet.

“House Democrats don’t need a lesson on reading the political moment from someone who handed Donald Trump one of the most corrupt Cabinets in American history,” the CBC said. “Voting to confirm Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi, and five other Trump Cabinet secretaries is not the posture of someone who understood the moment’ after 2024.”

The CBC closed its defense of Jeffries with a sharp parting shot of remaining focused on providing for Americans rather than “engaging in distractions that only serve to divide Democrats at a moment when unity and resolve are essential.”

A spokesperson for Slotkin, who has repeatedly called for a new generation of leadership in Congress, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Congress

Key Democrats urge House to reject kids’ safety proposal

Published

15 hours ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Commerce Committee’s top Democrat Maria Cantwell (Wash.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) warned House lawmakers against advancing their chamber’s version of the Kids Online Safety Act, arguing it would face intense lobbying from tech companies in the Senate and risk unraveling years of bipartisan work.

“If it is passed by the House it will come to the Senate,” Blumenthal, the bill’s Senate cosponsor, told reporters at a Friday press briefing. The Connecticut Democrat said he is concerned senators will be influenced by the tech industry’s “armies of lawyers and lobbyists” who may “confuse and exploit” misunderstandings about a House bill with the same name as a Senate version but excludes key provisions, such as the “duty of care.” (This concept requires online companies to design social media platforms with an eye for children’s safety.)

“We’re not going to let bad legislation with a good title just get across and think somebody’s done something,” Cantwell said.

The House version of KOSA — which is included in the KIDS Act, a revised bipartisan package that the Energy and Commerce Committee advanced along party lines in March — is scheduled to be considered on the House floor next week under suspension of the rules.

“We need to stop this bill in the House, and we need to prevent the White House from forming an alliance with Big Tech on this issue,” said Blumenthal, who characterized the version of KOSA that House leadership is pushing as a “sham.”

Both Democratic lawmakers also expressed concern that Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) could adopt the House version of KOSA in a kids’ safety package he has yet to publicly release but has pledged to markup by August recess. Cruz said “negotiations are ongoing” earlier this week when asked by Blue Light News whether he would be open to incorporating such changes put forward in the House.

Cruz’s package is expected to include KOSA as well legislation barring companies from using minors’ personal data for targeted advertising, banning kids under age 13 from social media, and providing greater oversight for how children interact with AI chatbots.

Although Blumenthal remains hopeful that Cruz will “stay true to his first vote in favor of KOSA,” which overwhelmingly passed in the Senate last Congress, the Connecticut Democrat said Friday he’s worried Cruz and others may be tempted to “take the bait” and abandon the bill’s basic principles.

Congress

Moderates beware: Mamdani coalition portends a dramatically different Democratic Party in NYC

Published

19 hours ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

NEW YORK — A coalition powered by Mayor Zohran Mamdani expanded the left’s reach Tuesday, winning younger voters across racial and ethnic lines and once again upending conventional wisdom about elections in New York City.

A series of hotly contested congressional and state elections pit a slate of Mamdani-backed democratic socialists and progressives against establishment candidates who, in several cases, differed little on policy aside from U.S.-Israel relations.

The results were staggering.

Midterm election cycles in deep-blue New York City tend to be sleepy affairs. Both this year and in 2022, just over 500,000 people cast ballots, less than 20 percent of eligible voters. But turnout within a congressional district spanning Upper Manhattan and the Bronx increased by roughly 50 percent between 2022 and Tuesday, with more than 66,000 voters heading to the polls.

In another seat covering parts of Brooklyn and Queens, turnout more than doubled from 2022, though state and federal elections were held on different days that year and the seat was not competitive, which would have reduced the number of voters going to the polls.

Congressional candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America were able to replicate the mayor’s success by winning younger Latino voters in Brooklyn and a majority of Black voters in Harlem. Combined with the DSA’s base in relatively wealthy neighborhoods, the result charted the far left’s broadening appeal and a potential reorientation of the electorate that will influence races for years to come.

“This was a big wave for DSA and they did a good job capitalizing on it,” said Evan Roth Smith, a pollster with Slingshot Strategies. “The question now is: Was this a wave cycle that will abate, or is it the start of the takeover?”

Much of Mamdani’s base is concentrated in the so-called “commie-corridor,” a series of neighborhoods along the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront filled with young, educated and affluent voters who’ve propelled several DSA candidates into office. They went gaga over Mamdani’s candidacy and, as Tuesday’s results show, will turn out for candidates he supports.

The area was crucial to Assemblymember Claire Valdez’s crushing 56-38 defeat of Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.

“The factor that felt most significant to me were all of these New Yorkers who got activated and politicized in the mayor’s race last year who were looking for the next fight,” said Andrew Epstein, a political adviser to Mamdani who worked on Valdez’ campaign. “Those people didn’t go away. And they want to keep going.”

Valdez also won several heavily Latino areas that were expected to break for her opponent.

Reynoso was born in Brooklyn to Dominican parents and just a few years ago was a City Council member representing Bushwick, a long-gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood that’s home to Latino families and young hipsters. Valdez was born in Texas, moved to New York City in 2015 and served in the state Assembly for just one term before launching her Mamdani-backed bid for retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez’s seat.

She ended up winning areas of Bushwick by even greater margins than the total results — in some election districts winning upwards of 80 percent of the vote.

“You don’t win the district by 35 points if you don’t have broad advantages across age and demographic groups,” said Michael Lange, an election analyst and Mamdani supporter who has tracked several contested races with extreme granularity. “Is she blowing him out of the water with Hispanic voters under 50? I see tons of evidence that the answer is yes.”

The age advantage was the common thread across several other races.

In Upper Manhattan and the Bronx, for example, younger Black voters in Harlem were key to Darializa Avila Chevalier’s win over Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus who had built a small political empire in the district.

While gentrifying, the neighborhood remains a seat of Black political power and is home to younger households who tend to rent. That particular demographic is a strong indicator of why Mamdani won the area in 2025, even as he lost the Black vote overall to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose support was concentrated among older Black homeowners in Brooklyn and Queens.

While Espaillat never healed a rift with the Black community in upper Manhattan opened during his election in 2016, which contributed to his weak performance, Avila Chevalier demonstrated Tuesday that a significant share of voters there were not just supportive of Mamdani the person, but of the broader political movement he’s now leading.

Overall, she edged out Espaillat with Black voters 48-46, according to an analysis from The New York Times, which charted demographic breakdowns for several contested races.

Three winning congressional candidates endorsed by Mamdani — including former city Comptroller Brad Lander in Brooklyn, who unseated incumbent Dan Goldman — share several similarities. They won younger, college-educated and wealthier voters by huge margins, in several cases by 30 points or more, and lost lower-income voters to incumbents or candidates affiliated with incumbents — a sign that the movement seeking to boost struggling New Yorkers has not won them over.

While the DSA was able to win three state races without the support of Mamdani — a testament to the organizing prowess of the left that was essential to reactivating the mayor’s coalition — there were limits to the city’s leftward shift.

Rep. Grace Meng won her reelection race, though she only vanquished challenger Chuck Park by 14 points, an uncomfortable margin for an incumbent of her stature. Park, who ran to Meng’s left, was boosted by a huge turnout in Woodside, Queens, a multiethnic neighborhood that went heavily for Mamdani in last year’s mayoral race.

Elsewhere in the Bronx, however, incumbents remained strong. Rep. Ritchie Torres handily won reelection with 72 percent of the vote, though it was a low-turnout affair more consistent with an uncompetitive midterm. Nevertheless, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries touted the results — even as he watched a series of his endorsed candidates fall to the DSA in Brooklyn, his home borough, in a preview of the intraparty battles to come.

“In some higher-income districts, there was an outsized focus on the Middle East. In other districts, for instance, in the South Bronx, Ritchie Torres ran against somebody who was heavily critical of his position on Israel, and he won by fifty points,” Jeffries told MS NOW on Wednesday.