From§Each

Page A6From§Eachthe early bird edition — 29 September 2026

THE CHECK COUNT

House panel says Jack Smith's subpoenas violated the Constitution; asked if they tracked lawmakers, he could not say.

By SalStaff Writer

“‘So Embarrassing’: Watch GOP Senator's Attempt to Corner Trump Prosecutor Jack Smith Implode in Real Time”, 29 September 2026 (Photo via Common Dreams — the original report)

As it ran on the front

Jack Smith went back to the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday, his second appearance before the panel, and opened by telling members "I stand by" the decisions to charge Trump, and that he would not "be silenced by continued threats of prosecution." The hearing that followed ran more than four hours.

Sen. Smith said the basketball he remembered attending was a University of Iowa Hawkeyes game, played in Maryland. Sen. Amy Klobuchar noted Schmitt had the wrong sport's teams mixed up. Chuck Todd called it "just an embarrassing moment for GOP Sen. Schmitt." Common Dreams had the questioning imploding in real time.…

…(cont) Sen. Josh Hawley took a different tack. He called Smith's investigation "all about politics from Day 1" and said Smith should be disbarred.

Smith was also asked about Lindsey Graham, the senator who died in July. He said Graham "likely would have been a witness" in the 2020 election case had it gone to trial, and that he believed Graham "was a patriotic public servant. He was not a target of our investigation."

Then came the question the committee had actually convened to ask. On Sept. 22, House Republicans released transcripts alleging that Smith's team, Arctic Frost, had subpoenaed phone records belonging to Republican lawmakers. On Sept. 23, a House committee alleged Smith had violated the Constitution to spy on Republicans. Asked directly Tuesday whether those subpoenas sought the physical locations of Republican lawmakers, Smith said he could not say. He also could not recall key details about his demands for conservative fundraising records.

Committee chairman Chuck Grassley put the rest of the financial picture on the record: Smith's Arctic Frost probe had obtained checks from at least 4,782 Americans who donated to Trump — bank accounts and routing numbers included, all subpoenaed.

In November 2024, Judge Tanya Chutkan dismissed both of Smith's cases against Trump, the documents case and the election case. The cases are gone. The subpoenas, and the question of exactly whose movements they mapped, are still open.

“They spent four hours on a basketball score and a disbarment speech, and when somebody finally asked if the subpoena tracked a Republican lawmaker's actual movements, Smith went blank. You don't forget the location function on a subpoena you wrote — you forget it on camera, under oath, when the room already used up its time on Hawks and Hawkeyes. Watch what gets four hours and what gets a shrug; that's the tell every time.”
Sal
“Sure, the Hawks-Hawkeyes thing was rough, but nobody's disputing Senator Hawley's real point, that this whole investigation was political from Day 1 — that's the headline, not whether Smith remembers his own subpoena's scope. And look, a man who can't recall the details isn't hiding anything, he's just — did I say that? That doesn't sound like me. The point is, if the location question mattered, somebody would've asked it before the fourth hour.”
Chip

Earlier in this story

The receipts

‘So Embarrassing’: Watch GOP Senator's Attempt to Corner Trump Prosecutor Jack Smith Implode in Real Time GOP senator's perjury trap for Jack Smith catches only himself
Common Dreams§

Sen. Eric Schmitt faced instant ridicule on Tuesday after his attempt to catch former special counsel Jack Smith in a perjury trap imploded. During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Schmitt asked Smith, who in 2023 indicted President Donald Trump in two separate criminal cases, whether he had attended a professional basketball game…

Jack Smith testifies at Senate hearing, defending decision to charge Trump The Justice Department is targeting the officials who investigated Trump
NBC Newsmainstream§

Jack Smith appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee amid the Justice Department’s push to target law enforcement officials involved with his investigation into President Trump. NBC News' Julie Tsirkin reports on how Smith responded to senators.

Jack Smith dodges questions about spying on Republican lawmakers
Washington Examinerright§

Former special counsel Jack Smith defended secretly obtaining Republican lawmakers’ phone records, but he could not say on Tuesday whether his subpoenas sought their physical locations, nor could he recall key details about his demands for conservative fundraising information. The Senate Judiciary Committee marked Smith’s first time…

Grassley says Smith subpoenaed nearly 5,000 checks from Trump donors as part of Arctic Frost
Washington Examinerright§

Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) says former special counsel Jack Smith obtained checks from at least 4,782 Americans as part of his “Arctic Frost” investigation, giving the Biden administration access to these individuals’ bank accounts and routing numbers. Grassley grilled Smith about the collection of these…

· Jack Smith Violated Constitution To Spy On Republicans In Lawless ‘Arctic Frost’ Investigation, Committee Alleges from the morgue, 23 Sep 2026

· House Republicans drop Jack Smith transcripts in explosive Arctic Frost records fight from the morgue, 22 Sep 2026

· U.S. federal judge Tanya Chutkan of the District Court for the District of Columbia dismisses the two criminal cases by Jack Smith against President-elect Donald Trump, including the classified docume from the morgue, 25 Nov 2024

This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.