Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) said he made no mistake when he tried to place former special counsel Jack Smith in Atlanta during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, rejecting the idea that he mixed up an NBA game and a college women’s basketball game.
During the hearing on Tuesday, Schmitt told Smith he had “a series of text messages” that place him at a “Hawks” game on Feb. 3, 2024. Schmitt suggested the reference meant an Atlanta Hawks NBA game and questioned whether Smith had traveled to Georgia to meet with then-Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
The attempt fell flat when Smith said the basketball game he recalled attending featured Caitlin Clark in Maryland, not an NBA game in Georgia. Schmitt appeared to have mixed up the Atlanta Hawks NBA team and the University of Iowa’s women’s basketball team, the Hawkeyes.
Schmitt was asked about the exchange following the hearing by TMZ but dismissed the idea that he made a mistake with his line of questioning.
“There’s not a mistake,” Schmitt said. “I asked him if he was in Atlanta. The only NBA game going on — actually the only NCAA men’s game or NBA game with a 7:30 tipoff was in Atlanta. So I asked him if he was in Atlanta that night.”
When asked by CNN about the same exchange, Schmitt joked, “Who knew Jack Smith was a Caitlin Clark fan?”
, left, and Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) display a sign accusing former special counsel Jack Smith of meeting with Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Sept. 29, 2026, in Washington, D.C. The committee is holding the hearing to examine Smith’s investigation into Donald Trump. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)</p>
<p> ” data-large-file=”https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/eric-schmitt-defends-perjury-trap-airball-at-jack-smith-hearing-not-a-mistake.webp” src=”https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/eric-schmitt-defends-perjury-trap-airball-at-jack-smith-hearing-not-a-mistake.webp” alt=”Senate Judiciary Committee member Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), left, and Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA).” class=”wp-image-4746836″ srcset=”https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/eric-schmitt-defends-perjury-trap-airball-at-jack-smith-hearing-not-a-mistake.jpg 1024w, https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/eric-schmitt-defends-perjury-trap-airball-at-jack-smith-hearing-not-a-mistake.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/eric-schmitt-defends-perjury-trap-airball-at-jack-smith-hearing-not-a-mistake.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/eric-schmitt-defends-perjury-trap-airball-at-jack-smith-hearing-not-a-mistake.jpg?resize=150,100 150w, https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/eric-schmitt-defends-perjury-trap-airball-at-jack-smith-hearing-not-a-mistake.jpg?resize=696,464 696w” sizes=”(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px”><figcaption class=)
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), left, and Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) display a sign accusing former special counsel Jack Smith of meeting with Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Sept. 29, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)A poster board was briefly held up featuring cutouts of Smith, Willis, and Nathan Wade, the prosecutor who led the Georgia racketeering case against Trump, as well as the State Farm Arena, where the Atlanta Hawks play. It also featured text messages from Feb. 3, 2024, with one indicating a seat, “109 Row 1,” had been reserved for Smith.
The Atlanta Hawks hosted the Golden State Warriors at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 3, while Iowa played the University of Maryland in College Park at 8 p.m. Smith said Department of Justice records could corroborate his attendance at the Iowa-Maryland game.
The senator from Missouri had cautioned Smith of perjuring himself when asking about the basketball game, then telling him, “I think you’ve already perjured yourself” after holding up the poster board. Schmitt concluded his questioning about the former counsel’s whereabouts on Feb. 3 by calling Smith a “total dirtbag.”
The distinction became a point of contention during the hearing after Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) asked for the board to be raised again, as it had only been visible for a few seconds. Smith then addressed Schmitt’s allegation, saying he recalled attending a Maryland-Iowa game around that time, as Clark would be in town. Klobuchar noted the similarities in Atlanta’s and Iowa’s team names and accused Schmitt of relying on false information to suggest Smith had secretly traveled to Atlanta.
Schmitt responded, “I presented him with text messages about him wanting to meet with people that could have obviously been related to the prosecution that was coordinated with his office in Atlanta.”
“I’m going to begin my questions now,” Klobuchar said. “But I think that people should have their facts straight before they accuse someone of being a dirtbag and not get the teams wrong.”
Klobuchar also addressed Schmitt’s flub after the hearing.
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“He accused Jack Smith of perjury in the moment and said, ‘Don’t perjure yourself.’ And then he ended his questions by calling him a dirtbag,” Klobuchar said. “Those were his exact words. So my point was, don’t call someone a dirtbag when you don’t have your own facts right.”
The questioning was tied to broader Republican scrutiny of whether Smith’s federal investigation coordinated with Willis’s separate prosecution of President Donald Trump. Smith testified that he did not meet with Willis or Wade.
