Staff Reports
On January 22, 2026, former special counsel Jack Smith spent hours answering questions before the House Judiciary Committee, and Republicans made it plain they are fed up with a Justice Department that looks more like a political hit squad than an impartial law office. Lawmakers pressed Smith on his aggressive timelines and prosecutorial decisions in the Trump matters, pressing him to explain why the government pushed for such rushed schedules. The public watched as the supposed guardians of the rule of law struggled to justify what many see as selective enforcement.
Rep. Russell Fry cut right to the heart of the issue, highlighting the absurdity of expecting a defense to meaningfully prepare when confronted with mountains of material — numbers that balloon into the millions of pages. Republicans pointed out that defense teams faced figures like 11 million to 13 million pages and were told to make sense of it in impossibly short timeframes, a demand that amounts to a legal ambush dressed up as efficiency. That revelation exposed the real danger: a prosecution schedule designed not for justice but to kneecap a political opponent.
Smith defended his moves by invoking a right to a speedy trial and Supreme Court precedent, but his explanations rang hollow to members who smelled raw politics. When prosecutors push to try a former president on an accelerated timetable while burying the defense in discovery, you don’t need a law degree to see the optics — and the outcome — they were chasing. Americans deserve a Department of Justice that treats every citizen equally, not one that times prosecutions for political advantage.
The hearing also unearthed other troubling tactics, including the mass collection of phone metadata from GOP lawmakers, which Republicans rightly called an intimidation campaign against political opponents. Whether it was subpoenas of lawmakers’ records or overzealous requests that bloated discovery, the pattern has been consistent: expansive, secretive investigative sweeps aimed at a single political family. Washington elites telling working Americans they’re just following procedure is a poor cover when the procedure is weaponized.
Let’s be blunt: handing a defense team millions of pages and then urging lightning-speed trials is not tough lawyering — it’s prosecutorial malpractice when viewed through the lens of fairness. Republicans on the committee exposed how that approach would force lawyers to read at impossible paces or to miss crucial evidence entirely, effectively denying a fair chance to prepare. If the justice system is to retain any legitimacy, it must be insulated from political theater and rooted in genuine due process.
Patriots who love our country should be furious that the machinery of justice can be bent toward partisan ends. Congress has a duty to demand transparency, to reform procedures that allow such runaway discovery tactics, and to hold accountable any officials who weaponize their office. We should all stand for a fair, even-handed justice system that protects the innocent, punishes the guilty, and never serves as a cudgel for political victory.
