Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Missouri, accused former special counsel Jack Smith of perjury during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on September 29, 2026, claiming Smith had lied about attending an Atlanta Hawks game.
Jack Smith spent Tuesday defending his investigations of Donald Trump before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Nobody, including Smith, expected the hearing’s most-replayed moment to hinge on a basketball roster.
Schmitt pressed Smith on whether he’d attended an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks on February 3, 2024
, according to the Daily Beast’s account of the exchange. Smith looked puzzled. Told it was Atlanta, Smith answered flatly: No.
Schmitt kept pushing, framing the date as significant: it fell the day after news broke that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade had been in a romantic relationship, a disclosure that eventually got Willis removed from Georgia’s election-interference case against Trump, according to USA Today’s reporting on the hearing. Schmitt’s implication was that Smith had secretly met with Willis or Wade in Atlanta that night.
A Poster, a Quick Take-Down and an Accusation of Perjury
Smith said he had no recollection of that,
and denied ever going to Atlanta as special counsel, apart from possible airport layovers. Schmitt then said he had proof.
What would you say if I had a series of text messages from your team, that said you were in Atlanta at a Warrior-Hawks game on February 3, 2024, the day after Willis and Wade announced their affair?
Schmitt asked, according to USA Today’s transcript of the hearing.
A staffer, with help from Sen. John Kennedy, held up a poster purporting to show the texts. It came down within seconds. Smith asked.
Within minutes Schmitt had also accused Smith of weaponizing the Justice Department and called him a total dirtbag,
a line NBC News noted came after Schmitt tried to place Smith in Atlanta at the Hawks game.
Maryland vs. Iowa, Not Warriors vs. Hawks
Smith then offered his own recollection. It was Maryland playing Iowa, I think February 2024,
he said, adding that then-Iowa star Caitlin Clark was on the floor that night, according to USA Today and the Washington Post’s account of the hearing. The game was in College Park, Maryland, the Post reported — nowhere near Atlanta.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, who was next in line to question Smith, spotted the problem immediately. That might be the confusion, over the names of the team,
she said, before telling Schmitt perhaps you should have looked at it more carefully.
Yahoo News reported Klobuchar put it even more bluntly during the hearing: You had the teams wrong, sir.
Klobuchar did not let it go. People should have their facts straight before they accuse someone of being a dirtbag, and not get the teams wrong,
she said, according to USA Today. Schmitt did not apologize; NBC News reported that Klobuchar said he owed Smith one.
Schmitt’s Defense: The Only … Game With a 7:30 Tipoff Was in Atlanta
He gave a similar answer later on Charlie Kirk’s show, telling Kirk, He claimed later that he was at another game. Here’s the thing, my job is to ask the question, and if that’s what his answer is, that’s what his answer is,
as reported by the Washington Post. Schmitt’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment from either the Post or USA Today.
MAGA Influencers Claimed Victory Anyway
Footage of the exchange went viral within minutes, the Washington Post reported. But the reaction split fast: some conservative commentators appeared not to notice Schmitt had gotten it wrong. Benny Johnson posted, Senator Eric Schmidt [sic] just CAUGHT Jack Smith perjuring himself on the stand in his testimony,
in a post the Post said was later deleted. Fox News host Sean Hannity posted similarly on X before also deleting it, according to the Post.
The Daily Beast added another layer to the story’s timing: hours before the hearing, the Trump-friendly newsletter Axios had floated Schmitt as a potential 2028 running mate for JD Vance, describing him as trustworthy, intelligent, articulate and a deft political operator.
The Daily Beast also noted Schmitt is a graduate of Truman State University and Saint Louis University School of Law, while Smith studied at Harvard.
The Underlying Hearing: Smith Defends the Jan. 6 and Documents Cases
The basketball detour was a sideshow inside a broader, tense hearing. Smith appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee as the Justice Department pushes to target law enforcement officials tied to his investigations into Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents after leaving office in January 2021, NBC News reported. Both federal cases against Trump were dismissed.
Smith told the committee he would not be silenced by continued threats of prosecution,
and said his team’s investigation had developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation.
Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy opened his own questioning by asking Smith, What does the word arrogant mean?
and closed it by telling him, You make me want to throw up in my mouth,
NBC News reported.
Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Smith’s work amounted to rampant abuse of authority and political targeting
funded by taxpayers and declared, Jack Smith’s corrupt operation undermined the rule of law and threatened our very political institutions.
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., countered that fired law enforcement officials had been vilified for doing their jobs, calling the hearing an eight-year attempt to lie to the American people
ahead of the midterms, according to NBC News.
None of the accounts of the hearing indicate Schmitt ever produced the texts he displayed for a second look, or that he has since done so.