Senate Hearing Mix-Up: Schmitt Presses Smith on Hawks Game, Klobuchar Notes Hawkeyes
Sen. Eric Schmitt accused Jack Smith of perjury over an Atlanta Hawks game, but Smith said he attended an Iowa Hawkeyes women's game instead.
During a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Eric Schmitt, a Missouri Republican, sought to challenge former Trump prosecutor Jack Smith's credibility, but the exchange became muddled over two basketball teams with similar names.
Schmitt repeatedly questioned Smith about whether he had attended an NBA game in Atlanta on the evening of Feb. 3, 2024, when the Atlanta Hawks were hosting the Golden State Warriors. The senator accused Smith of perjuring himself and asked whether he would deny being in Atlanta if presented with text messages from Smith's team indicating he was at a Warriors-Hawks game on Feb. 2, 2024.
Smith responded that he did not believe he had visited Atlanta in his role as special prosecutor and was even more certain he had not attended an Atlanta Hawks game. He did, however, recall attending a University of Iowa women's basketball game at the University of Maryland on Feb. 3, 2024, a game featuring then-Iowa star Caitlin Clark.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota interjected, noting that the University of Iowa team is known as the Hawkeyes, not the Hawks. "Perhaps you should have looked at it more carefully," she said.
The line of questioning appeared aimed at placing Smith in Atlanta at a time when Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was under scrutiny for her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special state prosecutor she had hired for the county's election-interference case against Trump.