A tense moment during a Senate Judiciary hearing took an awkward turn Tuesday when Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri attempted to catch former special counsel Jack Smith in a lie regarding his whereabouts in February 2024. During the questioning, Schmitt suggested that Smith may have committed perjury by denying he attended an NBA game in Atlanta just one day before District Attorney Fani Willis revealed her affair with Nathan Wade. Schmitt went as far as presenting a poster board of text message screenshots and warned Smith not to perjure himself further, claiming the lawyer had already done so.
The confrontation quickly derailed when it became clear there was significant confusion over which sporting event was actually taking place. While Schmitt insisted Smith was watching the Atlanta Hawks, Smith testified that he remembered attending a University of Maryland women’s basketball game around that time to see star player Caitlin Clark. This claim immediately raised eyebrows among those familiar with college athletics, as Clark played for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes, not Maryland.
Senator Amy Klobuchar stepped in to highlight the factual errors on both sides of the exchange, sparking a verbal spat with her colleague from Missouri. Klobuchar pointed out that Clark’s affiliation with Iowa made Smith’s recollection flawed, while simultaneously criticizing Schmitt for rushing to make accusations of criminal dishonesty without having his own facts sorted out. She told Schmitt that people should ensure they have their details correct before accusing others of being dirtbags or getting sports teams mixed up in a federal hearing.
