A tense Senate hearing involving former special counsel Jack Smith suddenly became deeply personal Tuesday when Sen. Darline Graham confronted him over the treatment of her late brother, longtime Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Darline Graham accused Smith and his investigation of putting unnecessary pressure on her brother after investigators obtained his phone records as part of the federal investigation into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
“You bullied my brother,” Graham told Smith during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
She argued that the subpoenas had placed additional stress on Lindsey Graham and told Smith he should be ashamed of how the investigation was conducted.
“Shame on you,” she said.
Smith responded by making an important distinction.
“I believe your brother was a patriotic public servant,” Smith told her. “He was not a target of our investigation.”
Then came the detail that changed the exchange.
“He likely would have been a witness in our case,” Smith said.
That distinction matters.
(Watch The Video Below)
Smith was telling Graham that investigators did not obtain her brother’s records because they were preparing to prosecute him. Instead, according to Smith, Lindsey Graham possessed information relevant to the investigation and could have ultimately appeared as a witness had Trump’s federal election case gone to trial.
The dispute centers on investigators obtaining phone toll records connected to lawmakers as Smith’s team examined efforts to prevent or delay certification of the 2020 presidential election.
Those records showed information about calls, such as when they occurred and how long they lasted, rather than recordings or the contents of the conversations.
Republicans have fiercely criticized Smith over those investigative steps, arguing that obtaining records involving members of Congress represented an abuse of prosecutorial authority.
Smith has rejected accusations that his investigation targeted lawmakers because they were Republicans.
During Tuesday’s exchange, Darline Graham remained sharply critical of the former special counsel.
But Smith’s description of her brother was notably different from the picture she had presented.
Far from describing Lindsey Graham as a target, Smith called him a patriot and said prosecutors viewed him as someone who could have helped establish what happened.
The underlying Trump prosecution never reached a trial.
Smith ultimately abandoned the federal cases against Trump after Trump returned to the presidency, citing longstanding Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
That means Lindsey Graham never took the witness stand.
But Tuesday, sitting directly across from Graham’s sister, Smith publicly revealed what role the late Republican senator likely would have played:
Not a defendant.
Not a target.
A witness.
About the Author
Personal issues do not belong on the Senate floor. Graham was a decades member of the Senate and if an investigation stresses him like that he or his sister should not be in Public Service.