Senate Judiciary Democrats demanded that Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) apologize to former special counsel Jack Smith on behalf of the committee, after Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) accused him of perjury based on a mix-up of two sports teams.
Schmitt was caught in the embarrassing gaffe last month during the congressional questioning of Smith, when he accused him of perjury based on a confusion between two sports teams. Democrats aren’t keen to let Senate Republicans forget the incident, and in a letter dated Wednesday, obtained by Politico, ranking member Dick Durbin (D-IL) led the committee’s Democrats in demanding Grassley apologize and provide records related to the gaffe.
In the letter, the committee Democrats accused Grassley of violating Senate rules by failing to provide the records relevant to the hearing ahead of it.
“As of the date of this letter, we still have not received these records. We request that you immediately provide these and all other documents that you have withheld, commit to fully complying with Senate rules in the future, and apologize to Mr. Smith on behalf of the Committee for the unacceptable personal attacks and false accusations of perjury he faced during this hearing,” they wrote.
They said the texts produced during the hearing “established only that Senator Schmitt had not done the basic due diligence of verifying a document before relying on it.”
“Nonetheless, Senator Schmitt incorrectly asserted to Mr. Smith, ‘I think you’ve already perjured yourself,’ and inexcusably branded him ‘a dirtbag,’ language which is beneath the dignity of this Committee and the Senate,” the Democrats continued.
They concluded with an indictment of all Republican attacks against Smith, saying that all they have managed to do has been to “merely cast petty, personal, and partisan aspersions on” Smith, a “farce” which “culminated in a national embarrassment for the Committee.”
ERIC SCHMITT DEFENDS PERJURY TRAP AIRBALL AT JACK SMITH HEARING: ‘NOT A MISTAKE’
During the Sept. 29 hearing, Schmitt displayed text messages from Smith’s team, putting him at a “Hawks” game on Feb. 3, 2024, which Schmitt believed to be an NBA game in Atlanta between the Atlanta Hawks and the Golden State Warriors. Instead, Smith revealed he was actually at the University of Maryland on that day, attending a women’s basketball game between the Terrapins and the University of Iowa Hawkeyes.
Schmitt has maintained that no error was made.