Former Special Counsel Jack Smith delivered one of his most direct public assessments yet of Donald Trump's conduct Tuesday, telling the Senate Judiciary Committee that his investigation developed evidence that Trump committed serious crimes and that he stands behind the decision to prosecute him.

“Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation,” Smith told senators in his opening statement.

Smith said he would make the same prosecutorial decision today if presented with the same evidence, regardless of the former president's political party.

“If asked whether to prosecute a former president today based on the same facts, I would do so regardless of whether that president was a Republican or a Democrat,” Smith said.

It was an extraordinary statement from the prosecutor who spent years at the center of two federal criminal investigations of Trump.

Smith was appointed special counsel in 2022 and ultimately brought two federal cases against Trump: one involving Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and another involving classified documents Trump retained after leaving the White House.

Neither case ever reached a jury verdict.

But Smith told Congress Tuesday that the absence of a trial did not change his assessment of the evidence his investigators gathered.

SMITH: THE CHARGES CAME FROM THE EVIDENCE

Smith rejected Republican accusations that his prosecutions were politically motivated.

He said his office followed Justice Department policy and that his decisions were based on the facts and the law rather than Trump's politics or his campaign to return to the White House.

“The charges against President Trump were the result of the evidence,” Smith said.

Smith also reminded senators that grand juries in two separate federal districts returned indictments against Trump.

On the 2020 election case, Smith said Trump refused to accept his defeat and instead pursued what Smith described as a criminal scheme designed to overturn the election results and prevent the lawful transfer of presidential power.

Smith also addressed the classified-documents investigation.

He said Trump illegally retained classified material after leaving office and repeatedly attempted to obstruct efforts to recover it.

According to Smith, some of the highly sensitive national-security material was stored at Trump's Mar-a-Lago property in locations that included a bathroom and a ballroom.

Trump has consistently denied wrongdoing in both investigations and has portrayed Smith's prosecutions as politically motivated efforts to stop him.

Republican lawmakers repeated many of those accusations during Tuesday's hearing.

THE HEARING QUICKLY BECAME COMBATIVE

Republicans aggressively questioned Smith about his investigative tactics, particularly subpoenas that obtained phone records involving Republican members of Congress and other conservative figures.

Sen. Chuck Grassley accused Smith's operation of being partisan and said investigators had improperly targeted Republicans.

Smith disputed that characterization.

He explained that investigators sought lawmakers' phone records because Trump's allies were attempting to contact senators as Congress prepared to certify the 2020 election results on January 6, 2021.

The records at issue were telephone toll records — information about calls such as when they occurred and which numbers were involved — rather than recordings of the conversations themselves.

Sen. Ted Cruz repeatedly challenged Smith about the subpoenas and asked whether being a Republican had somehow become a crime.

“Absolutely not,” Smith responded.

Then came one of the strangest exchanges of the hearing.

THE ATLANTA HAWKS THAT WEREN'T THE ATLANTA HAWKS

Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri appeared convinced that he had caught Jack Smith in a lie.

Schmitt questioned Smith about whether he had attended an Atlanta Hawks basketball game on February 3, 2024.

Smith said he had not.

Schmitt pressed harder.

He said his office had reviewed text messages that he believed showed Smith had attended the Hawks game in Atlanta and suggested Smith's denial could amount to perjury.

The accusation was potentially serious.

Schmitt was attempting to place Smith in Atlanta while Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was separately prosecuting Trump in Georgia, apparently raising the possibility that Smith had secretly traveled there while the two Trump investigations were underway.

There was just one rather significant problem.

Jack Smith wasn't at an Atlanta Hawks game.

He was at a University of Iowa Hawkeyes women's basketball game.

In Maryland.

Smith recalled attending the February 3 game between Iowa and the University of Maryland in College Park, where he watched Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark play.

Then Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar pointed out what apparently happened.

Hawks.

Hawkeyes.

Schmitt appeared to have confused the Atlanta Hawks with the Iowa Hawkeyes.

The difference wasn't trivial.

Atlanta and College Park, Maryland, are hundreds of miles apart.

What had been presented as a potentially explosive accusation that Smith lied under oath and may have secretly traveled to Atlanta suddenly became a lesson in checking the name of a basketball team before accusing a former federal prosecutor of perjury on national television.

Klobuchar told Schmitt that accusing Smith of lying based on an apparent confusion over team names warranted an apology.

Schmitt had also called Smith a “dirtbag” during the exchange.

The episode quickly spread across social media.

Some conservative commentators initially celebrated the questioning as proof that Smith had been caught lying. At least two prominent posts touting the supposed revelation were later deleted after the Hawks-Hawkeyes mix-up became apparent.

SMITH SAYS HE WILL NOT BE SILENCED

Beyond the theatrics, Smith's appearance carried considerably greater significance.

Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked Smith and has called for him to face prosecution.

Smith addressed those threats directly.

“I will not be silenced by the continued threats of prosecution from the president or others,” he told the committee.

Smith also criticized the treatment of prosecutors, investigators and other Justice Department employees who worked on the Trump cases, condemning what he described as the vilification of members of his former team.

Republicans maintain that Smith abused the power of the Justice Department and improperly targeted Trump and his political allies. Those allegations remain a major focus of congressional Republican investigations into Smith's work.

Smith's testimony presented the opposite account.

He told Congress that investigators followed the evidence, operated within Justice Department rules and developed a criminal case they believed they could prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

And despite years of political attacks, the dismissal of the cases and threats that he himself could someday face prosecution, Smith told senators that his conclusion has not changed.

Donald Trump, he said, “engaged in serious crimes against our nation.”

That was the real story of Tuesday's hearing.

The Hawks and Hawkeyes just provided one unforgettable sideshow.