Eric Schmitt confronted Jack Smith at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, asking whether he had gone to an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and Atlanta Hawks on February 3, 2024. Smith said he was at an Iowa Hawkeyes game instead, turning Schmitt’s accusation into a public mistake on the record.
Senate Judiciary Committee hearing
Schmitt told Smith, “I don’t think that you know that we have this stuff, so I’ll give you a second to process it so you don’t perjure yourself,” then added, “I think you’ve already perjured yourself.” The exchange came as Smith testified about his role in investigating Donald Trump’s attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 election.
The date at the center of the dispute was February 3, 2024. Schmitt said Smith was at an Atlanta Hawks game in Georgia, while Smith said he attended a University of Iowa game against the University of Maryland because Caitlin Clark was playing.
Amy Klobuchar on the record
Amy Klobuchar stepped in to clear up the team-name confusion. “Could it then be that University of Iowa is the Hawkeyes? Could that be it?” she asked, then added, “From the state of Minnesota where we have the Gophers — there’s not a lot of confusion, there’s not a lot of professional teams with those names.”
Klobuchar also told Schmitt, “I would just say for a U.S. Senator to have false information and to imply based on a confusion about the name of a team — which I knew, knowing my midwestern sports — and imply that you were in another city, that you were somehow involved in that day in what was happening in Georgia and then call you a dirtbag is something that deserves an apology.” She said Caitlin Clark scored 30 points in the game.
Schmitt's poster board claim
Schmitt’s team briefly displayed a poster board that Schmitt said contained evidence Smith committed perjury. But the exchange collapsed once Smith identified the game as one involving the Iowa Hawkeyes, not the Atlanta Hawks, leaving Schmitt’s accusation tied to the wrong matchup.
The hearing left the mismatch itself in the record: Schmitt accused Smith of lying about where he was on February 3, 2024, while Smith said he was at the Iowa game. What exact evidence Schmitt’s team thought pointed to the Atlanta game was never explained during the exchange.
