Former Special Counsel Jack Smith faced pointed scrutiny on Capitol Hill Thursday as House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) opened a public hearing by revisiting the FBI’s controversial 2022 raid of then-former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
Jordan began by highlighting details from the committee’s prior deposition with FBI officials.
Jordan revealed that FBI agents searched the bedroom of Trump’s teenage son, Barron, during the operation.
“And then there was the raid on President Trump’s home,” Jordan said.
“You know, where they searched Barron’s room and the first lady’s closet?”
Smith appeared before lawmakers to answer questions about his prosecutions of Trump, after previously testifying in a closed-door deposition.
Jordan cited testimony from Steven D’Antuono, then the head of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.
D’Antuono told the committee that “none of the normal process, none of the normal protocol was followed” during the Mar-a-Lago search.
According to Jordan, D’Antuono said the first major red flag was that the raid was run out of the FBI’s Washington, D.C., field office rather than the Miami field office, which would normally have jurisdiction.
Jordan also said D’Antuono told investigators that FBI leadership recommended notifying Trump or his attorneys before executing the search.
“They recommended that President Trump be notified before they carried out the search,” Jordan said.
“Or at least when they got there, before they start the search, call the president’s lawyers, ask them to come there and meet them.”
Jordan said those recommendations were rejected by the Department of Justice.
The chairman went on to tie Smith directly to the operation, noting the timing of his appointment.
“On November 18, 2022 — three days after President Trump announces he’s running for president — Attorney General Garland names Jack Smith special counsel,” Jordan said.
“One of the first things Mr. Smith does is put on his team the very people responsible for the raid on President Trump’s home.”
WATCH:
NUKES ARE GOING OFF WITH JACK SMITH! Jim Jordan's opening statement just LAID WASTE to the crook!
Well worth the watch.
Cut through the noise of the left and LISTEN TO THE TRUTH! pic.twitter.com/3fX4stVm5S
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) January 22, 2026
The August 2022 raid on Mar-a-Lago ignited intense controversy and fueled accusations that the Biden administration was weaponizing federal law enforcement against its top political opponent.
At the time, Trump denounced the search as politically motivated and unprecedented.
“The Biden administration invaded the home of their chief political opponent, who is absolutely destroying him and everybody else in the polls,” Trump said during a 2022 rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
He accused the administration of employing “Third World” tactics.
“On a phony pretext from a highly political magistrate who they hand-picked late in the evening,” Trump said.
“They trampled upon my rights and civil liberties as if our country … were a third world nation.”
Trump also told supporters that FBI agents went through First Lady Melania Trump’s closet drawers and conducted what he described as “a deep and ugly search of the room of my sixteen-year-old son.”
Thursday’s hearing reopened those issues as Republicans continue probing the origins and execution of the Mar-a-Lago raid and Smith’s role in overseeing the prosecution that followed.
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