Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) is facing accusations that he tried to advance a conspiracy theory linking former special counsel Jack Smith to others who prosecuted President Trump—a line of questioning that collapsed when Schmitt apparently confused two basketball teams.
Schmitt seemed poised for a gotcha moment with Smith when he asked whether Smith had ever attended a February 2024 NBA game in Atlanta where the Hawks played the Golden State Warriors. Schmitt smiled slyly when Smith first denied attending the game, then implied he had caught the prosecutor by surprise.
“I don’t think you know that we have this stuff. So I’ll give you a second to process it, so you don’t, you know, perjure yourself,” Schmitt said.
His staff displayed a poster showing text messages in which Smith’s staff discussed seat numbers. Schmitt said that, “for context,” the game took place just after Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis (D) acknowledged a romance with a staffer—drama that rocked the election-interference case against Trump in Georgia.
But the demeanor of both men changed during the exchange. Smith became increasingly confused, and Schmitt’s staff quickly removed the poster featuring the text exchange that the senator had implied proved the prosecutor’s travels.
MS NOW zoomed in on Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), seated next to Schmitt, who had a stunned look on her face as Smith recalled attending a game in Maryland where the Iowa Hawkeyes were playing. It soon became clear that Schmitt and his staff had confused Smith’s attendance at an Iowa Hawkeyes basketball game with an Atlanta Hawks game.
Democrats have accused Schmitt of fomenting a conspiracy theory. Despite the apparent mistake, flawed premise, and public criticism, Schmitt has since promoted the inquiry on conservative media.
“Somebody didn’t do their homework,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told The Hill. “I’m a trial lawyer by profession. You get it right, or don’t do it.”
The episode was arguably terrible timing for Schmitt professionally, coming just hours after Axios reported that the Missouri Republican could be a possible contender to be a running mate for Vice President Vance if Vance runs for president in 2028.
Schmitt ended his line of questioning by calling Smith “a dirtbag.” “You may think you’re a hero in this story, but let me tell you something. You’re the villain,” he told the prosecutor.
Smith acknowledged attending a Hawkeyes women’s basketball game that featured star player Caitlin Clark, saying he went when the Iowa team traveled to Maryland. Footage of the game in which he was spotted in the crowd has since circulated on social media.
“If this is the correct basketball game, I recall going to a University of Maryland basketball game where Caitlin Clark was playing right around that time. … You could check if that was the exact date it was Maryland playing Iowa, I think February of 2024,” Smith said.
Democrats see something more insidious behind the mix-up.
“We were witness to a narrative, a false narrative of accusing you of being at a game that you were nowhere near, and I suppose that was supposed to be in furtherance of some sort of conspiracy or something,” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) said during the hearing. “I really don’t know, but you would hope that members of this committee would not make those kinds of accusations—and then to call you names on top of that.”
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said the information Schmitt had was “just wrong” and that he was glad Smith was able to “set the record straight.”
“To show a witness a document and then not let them see it is a terrible practice, but then also not to know the facts is a bigger problem,” Schiff said. “It looked like he had text messages suggesting that Jack Smith was at some sporting event he wasn’t at, and he hoped to catch Jack Smith in some false statement. It turns out the only thing false was the presentation.”
Schmitt’s team did not respond to a request for comment, including questions about what he was attempting to allege.
Besides not being in Atlanta, Smith said he never met Willis or her associate Nathan Wade during his time as special counsel. The timing of the game would also have had little connection to news of their affair becoming public.
Schmitt said he had presented Smith with text messages about Smith wanting to meet with people who could have been related to the prosecution coordinated with his office in Atlanta.
The idea made Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) chuckle. “Going to a basketball game? That’s a sketchy activity for a prosecutor,” he joked. “Nefarious things are going on.”
“The mysteries of that line of questioning will remain obscure and may be known only to the questioner. I couldn’t figure it out—put it that way,” Welch said.
In the conservative podcast world, however, Schmitt has championed the interaction, while other conservative media posts, since deleted, initially celebrated an exchange that had apparently been flagged for them in advance.
Schmitt discussed the exchange during an appearance on “The Charlie Kirk Show,” which included a recap based almost entirely on snippets of the senator speaking and did not show Smith denying his attendance at the Atlanta game. Schmitt briefly mentioned that Smith “claimed” he was at another game but stressed that the Hawks game was the only professional match happening in Atlanta.
Conservative influencer Benny Johnson posted—then deleted—a post saying Schmitt “just CAUGHT Jack Smith perjuring himself” and said the senator “pulled out the receipts.”
Screenshots are circulating indicating that Fox News host Sean Hannity also deleted a social post saying Schmitt “puts Smith on the spot” during the hearing.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said Schmitt’s questioning was part of a broader “ham-handed” effort to misrepresent Smith’s investigation. “The general objective of the majority in today’s hearing seemed to be to smear Jack Smith and to misrepresent his investigation, his priorities, his values, from the first questioning to the last,” he said.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) accused the committee’s Republicans of “gaslighting” the public.
“This committee’s Republicans are more concerned with Trump than the truth, more concerned with Trump’s crimes than the Constitution. And I’m watching today people say, ‘Oh, this is an unprecedented investigation. This man did unprecedented things.’ Heck yeah he did unprecedented things, because when has the United States of America seen people storm the Capitol and try to stop the peaceful transfer of power,” he said during the hearing.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) tangled the most with Schmitt over his dialogue, pushing him to once again display the poster showing the texts so that Smith would have a chance to respond. Schmitt fumed at Klobuchar for igniting an “open session” about his questions and accused her of “trying to rehabilitate the witness.”
She later fact-checked the sports schedule.
“We have confirmed that, in fact, you are right, Mr. Smith. The Iowa Hawkeyes played Maryland on Feb. 3, 2024. The final score was 93 to 85. Iowa won, and Caitlin Clark scored 30 points, so it must have been a pretty good game. The game was, in fact, in Maryland,” she said.
Klobuchar added that it was wrong for a U.S. senator to use false information, based on confusion about a team’s name, to imply that Smith was in another city and somehow involved in events in Georgia that day, and then to call him a dirtbag. She said that deserved an apology.