Former special counsel Jack Smith is scheduled to appear on Wednesday for a closed-door interview with the House Judiciary Committee, despite his request to testify in an open and public hearing. In my opinion, Republicans are depriving the American people of the opportunity to hear from a career prosecutor who investigated serious allegations that President Donald Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election and unlawfully retained classified documents.
I am not a newcomer to high-profile and politically charged investigations. Over a legal career spanning six decades, I prosecuted mobsters and politicians, and I defended both Republican and Democratic senators and House members. More recently, I represented President Trump during his first term in the special counsel’s investigation into allegations of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Republicans are depriving the American people of the opportunity to hear from a career prosecutor who investigated serious allegations against the president.
Jack Smith was once my adversary in a high-profile investigation of a Republican client. In that investigation, Smith proved himself to be fair, impartial and fearlessly committed to the facts and the law. He was unmotivated by partisan politics. But recent attacks on Smith are motivated by partisan politics, and they are untethered to the facts or the law.
As a prosecutor, I have experienced the pressure applied to attorneys pursuing high-profile investigations. During my time in the Department of Justice in the 1970s, I oversaw the federal investigation into Pennsylvania Democrat Dan Flood, a House appropriations subcommittee chairman. The attorney general’s office received some 300 phone calls from members of Congress urging us to drop the investigation. Then-President Jimmy Carter never pressured us to back down — despite some lawmakers threatening that if Carter did not get the Justice Department to drop the investigation, his legislation would go nowhere.
That’s how the Justice Department is supposed to work. You follow the facts and the law, and you don’t let politics pollute decision-making. You swear an oath to the Constitution and put country first; you do not swear an oath to the person temporarily occupying the presidency. And you do not put the private interests of one man over the interests of every United States citizen.
That commitment to the rule of law is what I experienced from Jack Smith when I represented Rep. Don Young of Alaska, one of the highest-ranking Republicans in Congress at the time. Smith inherited this investigation when he became chief of the Public Integrity Section — the Justice Department unit that oversaw public corruption cases from 1976 until the Trump administration effectively dismantled it this year. Back then, the FBI had been investigating the congressman for years, but he had done nothing wrong. When Smith took over the case, I asked to meet with him and discuss the investigation of my client. That’s how the Justice Department is supposed to work. You follow the facts and the law, and you don’t let politics pollute decision-making. Smith met with me for more than three hours. He had clearly read the case and asked thoughtful, probing questions. A few days after the meeting, Smith called to inform me that he was declining to prosecute. In all of my interactions with him, Smith demonstrated that he was a straight shooter, open-minded and a man of integrity. He did not let politics influence an investigation, and he did not care whether my client was a Republican or a Democrat. That is the Jack Smith I know. I cannot stand silent while he is vilified by people who do not know him. Jack Smith should be celebrated for courageously pursuing justice. I say this not as a member of any political party but as a lawyer, prosecutor, defense attorney and former Marine who cares more deeply about the rule of law and the well-being of our country than I do about the whims of a former client.
John Dowd has practiced law for nearly 60 years. He served in the administrations of Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. He was President Donald Trump's personal lawyer during the special counsel investigation into Russian collusion during the 2016 election. 
