By now you have probably seen the clip. Sen. Eric Schmitt thought he had Jack Smith cornered.

At the September 29 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Schmitt asked the former special counsel whether he had attended a Golden State Warriors Atlanta Hawks game in Atlanta on February 3, 2024.

Smith said no. Schmitt pressed. There was some back and forth until Smith said he did not recall going to a Hawks game and was not in Atlanta other than possibly passing through the airport.

Then Schmitt sprang what he believed was his trap. He claimed to have text messages showing Smith at a “Warrior Hawks game” and warned him to think carefully so he did not “perjure” himself.

There was one significant problem. Smith had attended a basketball game that day. It was not in Atlanta. It was at the University of Maryland, where Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes played Maryland. Hawkeyes, not Hawks.

University of Maryland records confirm Iowa played Maryland at the XFINITY Center in College Park on February 3, 2024. Clark scored 38 points before a crowd of 17,950.

The factual failure generated the headlines. But it risks distracting from the more important question: What exactly did Schmitt think he was proving even if he had been right?

The Real Target

Listen to Schmitt’s questioning. After asking whether Smith was in Atlanta, he immediately brought up Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Nathan Wade. “The day before,” Schmitt said, Willis had acknowledged her relationship with Wade, whom he called “the Atlanta prosecutor that was also trying to get Trump.”

Then Schmitt asked Smith whether he had ever met Wade or Willis while serving as special counsel. Smith’s answer was simple: “No.”

The sequence matters. The goal was not merely to place Smith at a basketball game. It was to place him in Atlanta the day after Willis’s disclosure, then imply possible coordination between the federal and Georgia cases.

CNN reported the questioning in similar terms, noting that Schmitt appeared to be trying to connect Smith to Willis and suggest coordination.

That is the part that deserves attention. Even if Schmitt’s basketball research had been perfect, what would he have established? That Jack Smith was in a city of roughly half a million people. Being in Atlanta would not prove Smith met Willis. It would not prove they spoke. It would not prove their offices coordinated. It would not prove a conspiracy against Donald Trump. At most it would prove geography. And Schmitt did not even have that.

Start With the Conclusion

The exchange shows how quickly Schmitt moved from location to insinuation. The theory required these steps: Smith attended a basketball game. The game was in Atlanta. Willis works in Atlanta. Therefore, Smith’s presence might involve Willis. From there the leap is to coordination against Trump. That leap is enormous.

Schmitt jumped from “Atlanta” to “Fani Willis” because the insinuation was the real product. His audience was not the hearing room. It was the right-wing media ecosystem that runs on suggestion rather than proof.

The Perjury Warning

Schmitt did not treat this as a casual question. He told Smith he had evidence Smith apparently did not know about, then said, “I’ll give you a second to process it so you don’t, you know, perjure yourself.”

A senator publicly suggested a former federal prosecutor might be committing perjury based on evidence Schmitt had not verified well enough to tell the Atlanta Hawks from the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Smith calmly replied that he remembered a University of Maryland game where Caitlin Clark was playing. Sen. Amy Klobuchar then stated the obvious. The trap disappeared.

Even If Schmitt Had Been Right

This is the question that should stick. Grant the premise. Suppose Jack Smith had been in Atlanta on February 3, 2024. What follows?

No evidence that he met Fani Willis. No evidence that he met Nathan Wade. No email. No text. No calendar entry. No witness. No meeting record. No communication between the two prosecution teams showing coordination.

Schmitt jumped from “Atlanta” to “Fani Willis” because the insinuation carries the weight. Insinuation is not evidence. Two people in the same metropolitan area does not prove they met. Two prosecutors looking at related conduct do not become conspirators because someone can imagine a conversation.

The Bigger Failure

The Hawks Hawkeyes mixup deserves to be remembered. Schmitt’s larger failure was more serious than a sports error.

He was prepared to accuse a witness of perjury and float a connection between two prosecutors on a chain of inference whose first factual link was wrong and whose remaining links were never established.

The more consequential question remains: why did a senator believe putting Jack Smith in the same city as Fani Willis would prove anything? Even if Eric Schmitt had gotten the Hawks right, he still would have faced the same problem. Where was the evidence of the conspiracy he was insinuating?

The poster board and the perjury warning produced theater. They did not produce proof.

Sources

U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee — “Oversight of Jack Smith’s Abuse of Authority and the Targeting of Republicans and Related Matters,” Sept. 29, 2026
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-activity/hearings/oversight-of-jack-smiths-abuse-of-authority-and-the-targeting-of-republicans-and-related-matters

HuffPost — Coverage of Sen. Eric Schmitt’s questioning of Jack Smith and the Hawks/Hawkeyes mix-up
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/news-anchor-eric-schmitt-ditched-show-jack-smith-hearing_n_6abfc13ee4b02a789b355ff2

Rev — Transcript of Jack Smith’s testimony, including Schmitt’s questions about Atlanta, Fani Willis, Nathan Wade, and the basketball game
https://www.rev.com/transcripts/jack-smith-testimony

CNN — Transcript and coverage of the Schmitt–Smith exchange
https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/acd/date/2026-09-29/segment/01

University of Maryland Athletics — Official box score for Iowa vs. Maryland, Feb. 3, 2024, confirming the Iowa Hawkeyes played at Maryland that day
https://umterps.com/sports/womens-basketball/stats/2023-24/iowa/boxscore/16548

Associated Press — Background on Fani Willis, Nathan Wade, and the Georgia prosecution
https://apnews.com/article/493165c4614761d4b965923696134c09

We’ll get straight to the point: The financial hardships that Daily Kos is facing this year are tough.

We continue to be paywall-free. We continue to be supported by our readers, not billionaires or corporations. But we need to bring in more revenue. We are leaning on our community more than ever to help make ends meet.

Top Stories Newsletter.