President Donald Trump called for Jack Smith to be “prosecuted” after the former special counsel testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
In a post to Truth Social, Trump called Smith “deranged” and accused him of committing “large scale perjury” in his testimony.
“Based on his testimony today, there is no question that Deranged Jack Smith should be prosecuted for his actions,” Trump wrote. “He destroyed the lives of many innocent people, which has been his history as a prosecutor. At a minimum, he committed large scale perjury!”
In his testimony, Smith laid the blame on Trump for the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol. Smith told representatives that Trump knew of the potential for a riot in advance and wished to take advantage of the confusion to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
“Our investigation revealed that Donald Trump is the person who caused Jan. 6, it was foreseeable to him, and that he sought to exploit the violence,” Smith testified.
Start your day with essential news from Salon.Sign up for our free morning newsletter, Crash Course.
Smith added that he believed he would face prosecution from Trump’s Department of Justice for sharing his read on Trump’s culpability.
“I will not be intimidated,” he said. “We did our work pursuant to department policy. We followed the facts, and we followed the law, and that process resulted in proof beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed serious crimes. I’m not gonna pretend that didn’t happen because he’s threatening me.”
Read more
about this topic
