By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, Dec 31 (Reuters) – Jack Smith, the former Justice Department special counsel who brought two now-dropped criminal cases against U.S. President Donald Trump, said that the Republican had acknowledged to others that he lost the 2020 election against former President Joe Biden, according to a transcript of a testimony by Smith.
The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on Wednesday released 255 pages of transcript from Smith’s testimony in mid-December, when he defended his investigation before the Republican-controlled panel.
His private testimony came following months of disclosures from Trump appointees at the Justice Department and Republican lawmakers intended to discredit Smith’s probe and bolster Trump’s claims that the cases were an abuse of the legal system.
Publicly, Trump falsely claimed that he won the 2020 election. His supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the Congress from certifying the results of the election. After taking office for a second time in January 2025, Trump pardoned the rioters.
In the testimony, Smith was asked if Trump ever acknowledged “that he knew that he had actually lost the election” to Biden, according to the transcript.
“Yes,” Smith replied. “So this paragraph references different statements that he made in the presence of other people. One is that, ‘It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still fight like hell.’ And then the other was, ‘Can you believe I lost to this f’ing guy?’ referring to Joe Biden.”
The transcript showed Smith to be saying that he saw “these admissions as corroborative of the larger case.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of work hours on Smith’s testimony.
Smith and his team secured indictments in 2023, accusing Trump of illegally retaining classified documents following his first term in office and plotting to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election. Smith dropped both cases after Trump won the 2024 election, citing a Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
Smith has said his prosecutors followed Justice Department policy and were not influenced by politics. Trump and his allies have alleged political motivation.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Don Durfee and Neil Fullick)
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