Jack Smith hearing takes wild Caitlin Clark detour over team name gaffe

Jack Smith, the former special counsel who led two criminal cases against President Donald Trump in 2023, faced GOP attacks in a wide-ranging hearing that veered into Caitlin Clark territory.

In the Senate judiciary committee hearing on Tuesday, September 29, the Republican senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri raised perjury allegations against Smith, apparently over a gaffe about the Atlanta Hawks and University of Iowa Hawkeyes basketball teams.

Schmitt asked the ex-prosecutor whether he had attended Hawks' game in Atlanta on February 3, 2024, and hinted that Smith may have met with Fani Willis.

“What city would that be in?” Smith asked and appeared confused.

“Atlanta,” Schmitt responded.

Smith flatly denied the claim outright. “I definitely did not go to a Hawks game. I’m sure of that,” he said, adding he did not believe he had been in Atlanta that day.

When the Republican senator pressed further, claiming he had the text messages that showed Smith was at the basketball game.

A staffer held up a poster board displaying three messages, then quickly removed it.

Smith objected that he never got a chance to read them.

“I think you've already perjured yourself,” Schmitt said.

After that, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, started questioning to let Smith respond.

He recalled his attendance at a basketball game against Iowa around that date, with U.S. Marshals accompanying him.

Klobuchar checked the calendar. Iowa faced Maryland on February 3, 2024, in College Park.

The Hawkeyes won 93-85, and the Fever guard Caitlin Clark finished with 38 points.

Klobuchar then highlighted Schmitt’s apparent mix-up between the NBA’s Hawks and Iowa’s Hawkeyes, telling him he owed an apology for the false implication, which Schmitt refused.

Smith also denied ever meeting Willis or Wade.

In a nutshell, the Caitlin Clark moment overshadowed the rest of the Senate hearing that was supposed to be centred on Smith’s probes of Trump.