GOP senator airballs perjury claim against Jack Smith over apparent Hawks/Hawkeyes mix-up

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., accused former special counsel Jack Smith on Tuesday of committing perjury when he denied having attended a specific Atlanta Hawks basketball game in 2024 — to Smith’s apparent confusion.

The attempted trick play happened during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Smith’s now-scuttled investigations into President Donald Trump. But it soon emerged that Schmitt had the wrong team.

“Did you go to an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks on Feb. 3, 2024?” Schmitt asked.

“What city would that be in?” a confused-looking Smith replied.

Schmitt pressed him again about whether he was in Atlanta on that date and then said he’d give him some “context” — it was the day after Fani Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Georgia, “came clean” about her romantic relationship with a prosecutor in her then-pending criminal case against Trump.

“The next day were you in Atlanta?” Schmitt continued.

“I do not believe so,” Smith responded. “I definitely did not go to a Hawks game. I’m sure of that.”

Schmitt then asked whether he ever met with the local prosecutors in Atlanta who charged Trump. “No,” Smith said.

“What would you say if I…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business