Incorrect Premise Leads to Perjury Accusation
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, Senator Eric Schmitt questioned former special counsel Jack Smith regarding his whereabouts on February 3, 2024. Schmitt asked Smith if he had attended an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks in Atlanta, Georgia, noting that the date followed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s public revelation of her affair with prosecutor Nathan Wade.
Smith responded that he "definitely did not go to a Hawks game" and stated he had not spent time in Atlanta during that period. He further clarified that he had never met with Willis or Wade.
Schmitt, a Republican from Missouri, then accused Smith of perjury. His staff displayed a poster board containing text messages that Schmitt claimed showed his team discussing plans to attend the Hawks game. The board was pulled down quickly after being displayed. Smith noted, "You just took it down really quick," and Schmitt refused to hold the board up again, instead calling Smith a "dirtbag." Smith later clarified that he remembered attending a college basketball game in February 2024 between the University of Maryland and the University of Iowa featuring Caitlin Clark.
Colleagues Correct the Record
Senator Amy Klobuchar suggested the University of Iowa team might be the Hawkeyes, but Schmitt interjected that she was trying to "rehabilitate the witness" and insisted the unreviewed text messages could have been related to a prosecution coordinated in Smith's Atlanta office. Klobuchar stated, "I think people should have their facts straight before they accuse someone of being a dirtbag, and not get the teams wrong," and later confirmed Smith’s story by stating, "The game was in fact in Maryland, Mr. Smith." She added that for a U.S. senator to have false information, imply involvement in Georgia based on a team name confusion, and call Smith a dirtbag deserved an apology.
Defense of the Hearing Tactics
Aaron Rupar tweeted on September 29, 2026, that Schmitt concocted a conspiracy theory about Smith traveling to Atlanta to collude with Willis and briefly displayed evidence before accusing him of lying. A closer look at the text messages Schmitt attempted to display showed they made no mention of the "Hawks." The article notes Republicans allege ill-informed conspiracy theories against Smith, who says he found proof "beyond a reasonable doubt" that President Donald Trump committed serious crimes related to overturning the 2020 election and stealing classified documents. Schmitt defended his actions on The Charlie Kirk Show, stating it was the only NBA or NCAA Men’s game going on in Atlanta at that time and that his job was to ask questions to see if Smith would ensnare himself in lies. Schmitt admitted he was not asking fact-finding questions but looking for a "gotcha moment" because he believes Smith has lied under oath repeatedly.