In his first public testimony about his criminal investigations of Donald Trump, former special counsel Jack Smith said the president was responsible for the violence on 6 January 2021, when hundreds of rioters stormed the US Capitol.
Smith told a congressional committee that he believed his team had “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” and enough evidence to win convictions against Trump in both cases they had prosecuted - one into Trump's alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election and the other into accusations that he illegally retained classified documents after leaving office the first time.
Trump pleaded not guilty in both cases, which were dropped once he returned to the White House last year.
On New Year's Eve, the Republican-led committee released 255 pages of transcripts of testimony Smith gave in private about the criminal cases, but Thursday's five-hour hearing was the public's first chance to hear him speak about it.
The lawmakers broke little new ground in their questions, with Republicans repeating accusations that the prosecutions were partisan attacks on Trump and that Smith was spying on certain Republican lawmakers by seeking subpoenas for their phone records. Democrats, meanwhile, targeted Trump's alleged wrongdoing involving the 6 January riot and applauded Smith and his investigations.
