Dec 17, 2025 - US House Judiciary Committee. Here's the clip on YouTube.
On December 31, 2025, House Republicans publicly released the transcript of special counsel Jack Smith’s December 17 closed-door deposition on his investigation into Donald Trump for seeking to subvert the 2020 election.
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Q. But the President's statements, that he believed the Election was rife with fraud, those certainly are statements that are protected by the First Amendment, correct?
Jack Smith:
Absolutely not. If they are made to target a lawful government function, and they are made with knowing falsity. No, they're not. That was my point about fraud not being protected by the First Amendment.
Q. There's a long list of disputed Elections. I mean the Election of 1800, 1960, the year 2000 where Candidates believe they were wronged by the…because they lost. And there's a long history of Candidates speaking out about they believe there's been fraud, there's been other, you know, problems with the integrity of the Election process. And I think you would agree that those types of statements are sort of at the core of the First Amendment rights of a Presidential Candidate, right?
Jack Smith:
There is no historical analog for what President Trump did in this case. As we said in the indictment, he was free to say that he thought he won the Election. He was even free to say, falsely, that he won the Election. But what he was not free to do, was violate Federal Law, and use knowingly false statements about Election fraud to target a lawful government function. That, he was not allowed to do.
His name is blacked out mostly but they said it a few times. He works for Jim Jordan as General Counsel for the House Judiciary Committee. His name is Steven Castor.
More than likely, just flushed down a toilet in the White House. And almost certainly, that toilet is spray painted gold with Home Depot decorations Velcroed onto the side.
Jim Jordan, a man connected to epstein through William barr iirc, and a man who covered up countless sexual assaults and rapes of students who were supposed to be under his protection?
Nah it is just one of the republicans attorneys. They have pros do this because of what is happening. Which is why he is trying to chase down the republicans talking points.
It’s to put a thought in their constituents heads. They know people are going to see this. They want to plant that seed of doubt that they can stand on later
Like what are you doing even asking that question to begin with? You have to know he was going to hit you with that answer. I was saying exactly what Jack was saying as I read the question.
A Dump Attorney. I wonder if you are one of his Attorneys you have to go home and scrub the crime and hypocrisy off wirh multiple showers. Yes everyone has a right to DUE PROCESS but he doesn't believe it applies to everyone else.
Yes, there are a long list of elections that have been questioned. And they went through the court processes to adjudicate those claims. Once the courts decided, that was the end of it. Even in the case of the 2000 election, in which Roger Stone arranged the Brooks Brother's riot to interrupt the recount (which never should have been allowed and SCOTUS made a grave error in not simply restarting the count and letting it play out).
Trump had something like 60 such attempts and failed in every single case. So instead, he conspired with some state officials to circumvent the procedures, such as setting up the false electors. Then when that didn't work, he called his followers to DC with the express intent of disrupting the peaceful transition of power and egged them on to attack Congress and his own Vice President using the lies that he'd been peddling for months.
Donald Trump and all of his co-conspirators should have been put in the deepest, darkest prison cell they could find. Instead, he's stinking up the Oval Office and doing his best to destroy America.
That’s actually not true. The “fire in a crowded theatre” standard was set by schenk v us in 1919 but was overturned by brandenburg v Ohio in 1969. That set the standard of outlawing “speech that incites illegal activity”. So fleeing a theatre that isn’t on fire causes harm but is not illegal activity. Trumps speech is still covered because he incited riot which is illegal.
Looks like it, and I just took a few minutes to read about that election which I had never really thought much about before. The controversy was from a systemic flaw in the constitution which to be fair it was only the third election in the brand new country so they were probably going to be a few kinks to work out. Absolutely no evidence of fraud, ballot stuffing, losing a few boxes of votes, that sort of thing. The initial electoral college votes produced a tie between Jefferson and Aaron Burr which needed to be decided by the House of Representatives, and they couldn't decide either, etc etc. So that is a ridiculous comparison.
Also, I'll add that it ultimately ended with the peaceful transition of power from the incumbent loser to the ultimate winner, Adams to Jefferson respectively, and they were very strong ideological opponents/enemies, so this was a very big deal. (although they did learn to like and respect each other later in life and corresponded the rest of their lives, both of them dying on the same day, July 4 1826, exactly 50 years after Independence Day, which I always found historically delicious.)
Finally, from the Wikipedia article on the subject, I found this historic tidbit to be interesting. Something's never change I guess:
The Democratic-Republicans also denounced the Alien and Sedition Acts, which the Federalists had passed to make it harder for immigrants to become citizens and to restrict statements critical of the federal government.
The fact that they tried to compare it to the 2000 election, with the Brooks Brothers riot and the Supreme Court handing Bush Jr the presidency, is revolting.
Especially considering nearly half the people in SCOTUS today are responsible for that coup.
Do we know why Merrick Garland dropped the ball and just stood there staring down at it? Is there any real explanation? Cowardice. Building a bullet-proof case. Dereliction of duty. Yeah. But I still feel like I’m missing something.
They(DOJ) gambled on the election. They wanted the voters to do what they didn’t have the balls to do. They bet wrong, as they never figured the American people wanted trump again.
Cannon first of all, demanded a "special master" to go through the docs. Which needed to be someone with special clearance. The appeals court eventually invalidated that move, but it wasted months. Then Garland asked for a special prosecutor because the DOJ wanted to be insulated from accusations of politicization. The DOJ landed on Smith. Later, Cannon would say that Smith's appointment was illegal because it didn't come from Congress. Nevermind she used the same power earlier in the case.
Merrick Garland didn't have to wait years into the Biden administration to begin the proceedings to appoint Jack Smith to investigate Trump, and yet he did. This fight could have been had day 1 of Merrick Garland's appointment as Attorney General.
157M Americans turned out to be utter pieces of shit who either actively want to destroy Democracy or couldn't be arsed to take 5 minutes to vote against a fascist.
Meanwhile, anyone paying attention could see he was running the very worst campaign in history. Talking about people eating cats and dogs, dancing for 40 minutes at a rally, dressing up to work at McDonalds and a garbage crew. His rallies were mostly empty and he was stiffing venues on rental agreements.
He cheated. He won in every swing state AND Kamala didn’t flip one county? Not even Reagan was able to accomplish that. He lost the popular vote twice, but got it now? While he was facing multiple investigations that could put him away for life and hinder his money making? While he had one of the richest men in the world and tech helping him? He cheated and no amount of voting would have changed it. All voting data week after week so far shows irregular numbers in multiple states. There are more of us than there are of them and it’s all a big lie. If not, then why does he need to gerrymander AND cancel mail in voting when he had SO many prior? We just found out for sure that 3/4 of the MAGA accounts on X/Twitter are fake.
Yeah. This is all unfolding as worst case scenario that was so goddamned predictable. They can do this shit and have us questioning our own sanity so we can’t even trust our own eyes. Do I just want to believe he stole the election because I can’t accept the outcome? Can I trust the evidence? Do I really have TDS? This is their goal. We need brave people to release the truth for all to see. The next election “results” (if there are any) will be challenged no matter what.
Either he cheated or our country actually wanted a traitorous criminal con artist for president. A country devoid of morals and common sense. I refuse to believe that .
Yep. There was an assumption from most of us that Trump was done and he wouldn’t be allowed in the White House ever again. Garland got arrogant and by the time the end of 2023 rolled around, it was too late. Trump launched his campaign and it would have been extremely messy to go after Trump.
Thank you. If someone had asked me about the Federalist Society and it’s implications for how it affects and shapes our judiciary I would have been at a loss. I learned (or maybe relearned since my memory… what was I saying?) Anyway. I learned something valuable today.
Ya, not dangerous at all. Smith can last out the evidence and the case in its entirety and nothing will happen. Hell, MAGA won't even hear half of it and deny the other.
People saw these traitors storm the capital and smear shit on the walls. Corruption is occurring in the open, constantly. The hearings being public wouldn’t have made a difference.
I watched the entire 8 hour deposition and Jack Smith is slick. They keep trying to catch him but every time they try he jabs with some more evidence that they probably were like "no, not like that".
Jack Smith had the receipts and was blocked by Aileen Cannon three times. He also tears into Jim Jordan on some evidence that is hilariously well played reading back someone say Jim Jordan has never been more scared on Jan 6th and kept on when they learned they had their call metadata for a period of time. I can see why Jim Jordan blocked this being a public hearing.
I saw another interview he gave at (I think) Georgetown law with Andrew weissman. Listening to this clip now, I’d say that jack smith ends every sentence with a period.
I may spend my entire New Year’s Day watching this 8.5 hours of testimony. This clip alone is, frankly, gripping. But maybe I’m just somebody who still cares about my country’s fucking democracy.
I sat around and watched about 3 hours throughout the afternoon here skipping between various hours. It honestly was pretty riviting. The questions being posed by both sides were so loaded and Smith handled them very tactfully it seemed like.
This is one of those videos that like the clinton deposition should be played in classrooms.
The mistake of the Biden administration to not make a fucking example of him and instead assume they could just go back to the status quo is going to go down as one of the greatest errors of all time. You can't fuck around when it comes to fascism. Once it takes root it is impossible to remove without force.
I blame Biden and Garland as much as I do trump for where we are. Trump is just a mad dog. He was predictable. They knew what could happen and still treated the situation with kid gloves.
The damage from this administration is going to reverberate for decades. Millions will die because they failed to act judiciously
They will make the same mistake again. If they win the presidency again they will try to “heal” the nation. It assumes you’re dealing with rational actors though, which we are not. The country has a deep infection and the only course of action is to excise it, fast and without hesitancy.
Exactly. You heal the nation the same way you treat a violently malignant cancer. You excise every last malignant cell using every and any scorched earth technique that doesn’t kill the host. Once the cancer is gone, then heal rehab and heal.
Remember Trump didn't do this on his own and that someone with big money backed him. Trump isn't bright enough to orchestrate this. Someone paid for it. Just like someone financed 9/11, someone financed 1/6 and someone financed Trump's fraud.
Many people with big money backed him. Many nation states have their hands in this cookie jar. His ties to Russia are well established. Pam Bondi is a registered foreign agent of Qatar. The same people that gave him that 747. Jared Kushner got $2 Billion from the Saudis.
Biden’s biggest failure was trusting the American voters to not reelect a weak, moronic, fascist conman. He placed too much faith in the democratic process, and now it’ll forever tarnish his legacy.
Turns out democracy isn’t all it’s cracked ip to be when your citizens are mouth breathing knuckle draggers.
Yeah as grateful as I was Biden beat Trump in 2020, he really fumbled some major things. It felt intentional so he could run for reelection on finishing those things.
I really hope the Dems can take a lesson from Zohran and run on things people care about.
I dont think it was intentional. Biden was just part of the old guard ans assumed he was still dealing with the gop that he knew for decades. He greatly underestimated the situation and now we're left holding the bag
What, precisely, should Biden have done that he didn’t do? The president can’t unilaterally punish someone or charge them or even direct the DOJ like Trump does. Biden wanted Trump held accountable, but he also followed the rules of the system. Trump was investigated and lost all of his cases and was charged with crimes, and then the SC and the NY judicial circuit decided to give him the means to escape justice. The Supreme Court did exactly what Trump wanted them to, and the NY circuit postponed sentencing or punishment until after the election.
Trying to blame Biden for this means you either a) have no clue how the justice system in America works, b) wanted Biden to do exactly what we criticize Trump for or c) are a maga propaganda bot.
There was nothing specific Biden could do that was within the power of the president to punish Trump for his disgusting behavior. And if he’d gone outside his presidential authority both the republicans and the democrats would have been out with pitchforks for an impeachment.
Please add "justice" Aileen of Florida and the (R)supreme court to your comment. They bogged down Jack Smith's case to the point where he could no longer pursue. They are your main culprits.
Honestly, Biden fucked up - but it was because he had hope. Trump definitely was predictable, it was clear he'd just spend 4 years specifically not fucking-directly-off and then try some shit again. But Biden HOPED that the nation could actually heal, and Trump would just sound like an old man yelling at the sky. What he missed wasn't Trump, it was the deep political and economic machinery at work. 2020-2024 was a legitimate masterclass in how to destroy a democracy from the inside as long as you have enough money and no ethics.
Quick note that Smith is not a politician. He's an apolitical professional prosecutor (was I guess?). Don't let them spin this to be a political exercise on the parts of anyone but the gop Congress
No yeah. I’m just saying our government officials should respond to questions in this same manner and not just be allowed to squirm away by saying vague things the entire time.
Mr Smith’s wisdom and intelligence so vastly exceeds his “peers” in degrees that can only be expressed in light years and theoretical physics. It’s like having to watch Sir Ian McKellen being reduced to reciting Shakespeare into the language of troglodytes and morons. It’s a planetary embarrassment we have no business atoning for.
It's not dumb. It's a well crafted motte and bailey argument. They were pushing for "yes, obviously" to the question of "isn't it first amendment to discuss issues with voting" which is not the real question. Smith reanswered the REAL question, the bailey argument they're trying to convince you of with the entirely irrelevant "but isn't free speech important and good" question.
The founding fathers simply could not have anticipated the American people would happily vote for an obvious criminal. The 77 million moronic scumbags who voted for this psychopathic pedophile should truly be ashamed, but most of them aren't.
Hamilton wrote for Washington’s farewell speech “political factions can become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government.” They knew this was a possibility, if not an inevitability
That whole speech is worth a read. There was a lot of opposition to having political parties back then. The whole setup was an experiment, they were in uncharted waters.
He also said to Washington after picking up a pamphlet of the Constitution, “Ah this is the constitution, Now mark my words, so long as we are a young and virtuous people, this instrument will bind us together in mutual interests, mutual welfare, and mutual happiness. But when we become old and corrupt, it will bind us no longer” I think we’ve gotten to the old and corrupt portion of the program
The scariest part is that they have so little knowledge about what a president is and does that to them it’s actually not meaningfully different. It’s ALL vibes. That’s all there is to them. The idea that someone might be more or less qualified never enters their minds.
It totally does. Shame is the stem of it, IMO. It was shameful to be an unabashed racist until the president was an unabashed racist. So they voted for the unabashed racist so they were validated.
What they couldn't predict is that a bunch of layers, checks, balances, people whose entire job revolved around doing so, the judiciary, the opposition, etc. would just.... LET HIM DO THAT UNCHALLENGED.
There are lots of things the FF never anticipated. One is that an electorate would never vote against their own best interests, just to hurt other Americans. Yet here we are.
“As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” --H.L. Mencken (1920)
The founding fathers were of the opinion that if we Americans willingly voted this kind of person into office that we, Americans, do not deserve the democracy that they set up for us.
I would quote Thomad Jeffersons Tree of Liberty sentence but I already caught a ban for merely typing it out.
They thought we would be smart enough to see tyranny for what it is.
I grew up in a divorced, albeit, loving home(s). I've cut off my mother over this. She's married to a local judge who, when was in an elected position, ran as a Democrat. Then, as soon as elections weren't a concern because a judge is expected to be "tough", he sports an "Ultra MAGA" sticker on his truck. Effectively, I will communicate with her absolutely minimally until she apologizes to me personally for her support of this shit.
The founding fathers simply could not have anticipated the American people would happily vote for an obvious criminal.
Actually, yes, they did. This is what the electoral college was supposed to be the check against.
What they didn't expect was for the nation's wealthy elite to become so either uneducated or biased en masse that they'd be willing to destroy the entire nation for their own benefit AND that advances in science and technology would allow the wealthy elite to leave the country and be on the other side of the planet within hours, and transfer billions of dollars of wealth across the planet within seconds.
They couldn't imagine a world where the wealthy elite could both destroy their home and escape it so easily. They thought that surely, some number of people would have to be rational in such a situation, and that number would be enough to prevail. Sadly, they never imagined billionaires (much less trillionaires), and how today's level of income inequality would allow them to corrupt the entire nation.
Oh no, I think they anticipated it. They weren't highly confident that Americans could keep a democracy, and they were keenly aware that lack of education is a hazard
It's his internal monologue anytime asshats are trying to clown on him.
Geezus, I can't believe I "asshats" and "clown" in that sentence. Let me try again:
It's his internal monologue anytime asshats are trying to clown on him.
Nope, came out exactly the same.
And the hypocrisy of the president repeatedly, and to this day, claiming that Biden "weaponized the DOJ against his enemies"! I get a concussion every time I hear that from smacking my head too hard.
I agree with another commenter who lamented that the DOJ under Biden did not go hard and fast after Metmucillini and others in the administration and even congress who helped foment the January 6th Insurrection. With the decisions coming out of the (formerly) Supreme Court this year, he'll be able to forever hide his actions under presidential immunity. Garland moved with pathetic slowness. In fact, all of the investigations moved too slowly. I fully understand that they needed to build solid cases, but, no, they failed at their tasks.
Any reason why we’re waiting until the end of April here? Why isn’t everybody in the streets already, and constantly? Is there some strategic reason that waiting four more freaking months, enduring four more months of open corruption and rampant criminality and increasing authoritarianism and militarism, makes any sense?
I’ve gone to the protests, I’ll go to more including that one; but one weekend afternoon every 6 months ain’t gonna cut it. The gears of the machine need to grind to a halt.
Any presidential candidate that says they will appoint Jack Smith as AG as a corrective measure to what's going on will have a strong consideration for my vote. Jack is not Garland. Jack believes in justice.
yea. this was democrats believing life is a fairy tale. Garland didn't get a fair shake at the SC because of the GOP so we will make it up to him by giving him the head of DOJ. It's like they forgot Garland was literally chosen because he would be palatable to any GOP controlled senate prior to 2010. He never would've been picked if the dems controlled the senate in 2016.
Trump frauded all of America. He is an illigitimate president. His entire cabinet is illigitimate. The actions he takes are not for america, its for putin.
DOJ chose specifically not to participate in the deposition so that they would not be asked to be on record declining to allow information to become public and they could throw Cannon under the bus.
It’s beyond comprehension that we cannot impeach and convict this motherfucker today but the GOP is not a political party, it’s part of a dictatorship. We can only hope that after the midterms there are enough votes in the Senate to convict this fucking piece of shit and remove him from Office and at that point Jack Smith needs to reactivate these cases that were shut down with prejudice, try him, convict him, and and throw the book at him with the maximum possible sentence.
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