The hearing became tense after Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., presented a text message to Smith that he suggested showed the former special counsel was in Atlanta for a basketball game in 2024.
Schmitt asserted the game was between the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks, and it was around the time that a romantic relationship was revealed between Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and another prosecutor involved in the Georgia election interference case.
Smith, looking confused, repeatedly said he believed he didn’t attend a basketball game in Atlanta and said he had never seen the text message before, which Schmitt had only briefly displayed on the dais.
When it was Klobuchar’s turn to begin her questioning, she asked that the text message be presented again for Smith to view.
Smith then remembered: “I recall going to a University of Maryland basketball game where Caitlin Clark was playing right around that time, and the Marshals Service was there with me. You could check if that was the exact date. It was Maryland playing Iowa. I think February of 2024. But again, you could check that out if that’s what we’re talking about.”
Klobuchar then said, “That might be the confusion over the names of the team,” telling Schmitt, “But perhaps you should have looked at it more carefully.”
As she wrapped up her questioning, Klobuchar confirmed the details of the game Smith said he attended.
“We have confirmed that, in fact, you are right, Mr. Smith,” she said. “Iowa, the Iowa Hawkeyes, played Maryland on Feb. 3, 2024. The final score was 93-85. Iowa won, and Caitlin Clark scored over, scored 30 points. So it must have been a pretty good game. The game was in fact in Maryland, Mr. Smith.”
“And I would just say, for a U.S. senator to have false information and 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 that day in what was happening in Georgia, and then call you a dirtbag is something that deserves an apology,” Klobuchar said.
Asked outside the hearing room whether he still thought Smith had perjured himself after learning the details of the game the former special prosecutor had attended, Schmitt told NBC News, “We’ll find out. That’s going to be up to a prosecutor to determine. My job here today was to ask questions and get answers.”
