Former U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith, who unsuccessfully prosecuted President Donald Trump, appeared before a House of Representatives panel for his public testimony on Thursday, where he condemned “false and misleading narratives” about his investigation.

Smith was fielding questions before the Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee about his two criminal cases, which he dropped after Trump won the 2024 presidential election. One case accused Trump of conspiring to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election, while the other accused him of unlawfully holding onto classified documents.

The hearing marks the first time the American public will hear at length from Smith, whose historic prosecutions dominated Trump’s years out of power and helped fuel the Republican president’s quest for retribution since returning to office.

“President Trump was charged because the evidence established that he willfully broke the very laws that he took an oath to uphold,” Smith told the House panel. “If asked whether to prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would do so, regardless of whether that president was a Democrat or a Republican.”

Republican lawmakers are seeking to discredit Smith’s investigation and buttress Trump’s claims that the probes were an abuse of the legal system.

“It was always about politics,” Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the Republican chair of the Judiciary Committee, said at the start of the hearing. “To get Donald Trump, they were willing to do just about anything.”

Democrats Defend Smith

Democrats defended Smith as an apolitical career prosecutor who was guided by the evidence in building his cases against Trump.

Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the panel, said Trump has assailed Smith “not because you did anything wrong, but because you did everything right.”

“You had the audacity to do your job,” Raskin added.

Smith’s testimony is expected to focus primarily on the case that accused Trump of using false voter fraud claims to obstruct the certification of election results following his 2020 defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.

A federal judge has barred the Justice Department from disclosing many of the details surrounding Smith’s second case, which accused Trump of stashing highly sensitive government documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence following the end of his first term in 2021.

Trump Pleaded Not Guilty

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges and has repeatedly argued the charges were improperly aimed at damaging his 2024 campaign.

Neither case reached trial and Smith dropped them after Trump won re-election, citing a Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.

Trump, who called Smith a “sick guy” earlier this week, has called for his prosecution. The Trump administration has fired dozens of Justice Department lawyers, FBI agents and staffers who worked on the investigations.

Republican lawmakers are expected to press Smith on disclosures from the Justice Department showing that his investigators examined limited phone records from several Republican senators in the days surrounding the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.

Trump allies have argued that the records show Smith’s investigation was overzealous and aimed at the political opposition.

Smith has said the records were necessary to examine Trump’s efforts to pressure Republican lawmakers to block certification of the election.

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(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Additional reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Andy Sullivan, Nia Williams and Daniel Wallis)