LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Now, we'll turn to a former prosecutor who was watching yesterday's hearing closely. Andrew Weissmann served as a lead prosecutor in Robert Mueller's special counsel's office from 2017 to 2019. Today he's a professor of practice at the NYU School of Law, and he co-hosts the podcast Main Justice. Good morning, and welcome to the program.
ANDREW WEISSMANN: Good morning.
FADEL: So as we heard there from our correspondent, Republicans tried to cast Smith as partisan with an anti-Trump agenda. And you watched the hearing. Did they make a convincing argument or offer new evidence to back that up?
WEISSMANN: So one of the more remarkable things that I noticed was that the Republicans were sort of picking around the edges. They said that he sought records for different senators, that he may have taken the oath of office to be special counsel not once but twice. They attacked the Capitol police, saying they could have done more to stop the January 6 insurrection. They pointed out that Jack Smith wanted a relatively fast trial. But none of that has anything to do with the facts that Jack Smith was laying out during the hearing and laid out in his final report about the president having sought to interfere with the transfer of power, or possessing classified documents in Mar-a-Lago and obstructing justice. So there was no direct challenge to any of those underlying facts. Remember, of course, that many of the people at this hearing, Republicans and Democrats alike, were present at the Capitol on January 6, so they are percipient witnesses for what happened.
FADEL: Now, one of the things looming over this hearing was that Jack Smith expects that he might be indicted. At one point, he acknowledged that his testimony could be used in potential prosecution against him, which Trump has explicitly said he wants. Did this hearing give the Trump administration material for an indictment?
WEISSMANN: I don't think so. But one thing to - for folks to remember is that when you look at what the administration is trying to do with Jerome Powell or what they tried to do with James Comey - to allege that there's some inconsistency, to jump from that to saying there's a criminal prosecution because of intentional lying - it doesn't seem like the bar is very high for this administration to open a criminal investigation if they can find any discrepancy, even if it's, you know, clearly inadvertent. And in - I would say in Jerome Powell's case, we've yet to understand anything at all that would justify an investigation. He, of course, has said that he thinks it is entirely contrived as a way to put pressure on him to resign.
FADEL: A judge appointed by Trump blocked the release of Smith's report into the classified documents investigation. That order expires in a month, and now the president's personal lawyers are trying to stop it from ever coming out. Do you think that report will ever be made public?
WEISSMANN: I do. I think that although there is this pending motion by the president to have it continue to be under seal, it is worth remembering that the Court of Appeals that oversees the District Court judge, Judge Cannon, actually issued an order to her to essentially step on it. She had been sitting on the press motion to have the report unsealed. She had to comply with that Court of Appeals order. And I think the writing's on the wall that if she were to grant the president's new motion to continue keeping it under seal, that that's the kind of thing that the Court of Appeals, I think, would reverse. And the press, I think, rightly would appeal to that Court of Appeals to have that be the result.
FADEL: Now, this is a public hearing that Jack Smith had wanted for quite some time. Do you think he achieved what he set out to do?
WEISSMANN: I do. You know, I interviewed Jack Smith in London. And I think that one of the things that is really useful is for the public, whether it's in that academic setting where I interviewed him or in this setting, where he's under oath before Congress - I think it's terrific for the public to be able to make their own assessment and not sort of assess him based on labels and epithets that can be coming from one side or the other. And they get a measure of the man, and they're getting to do that firsthand and unfiltered.
FADEL: Andrew Weissmann is a former lead prosecutor in Robert Mueller's special counsel's office and now a professor at NYU. Thank you for your time.
WEISSMANN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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