US Senator Schmitt mixed up team names during hearing — Rolling Stone

In Washington, US, Senator Eric Schmitt mistakenly suggested during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith was in Atlanta on February 3, 2024. As Rolling Stone reports, the reason was confusion between the names of basketball teams.

Question about a game in Atlanta

Schmitt asked Smith whether he attended an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks on February 3, 2024. The senator displayed an enlarged image of correspondence and said that he had evidence. Smith replied that he did not remember being in Atlanta during the investigation into Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, except possibly for an airport layover.

Schmitt said that Smith had allegedly already given false testimony. Smith asked for the message to be shown again, but the senator quickly removed it. Senator Amy Klobuchar joined the discussion and ensured that Smith could review the text of the correspondence.

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Confusion over team names

Smith then explained that on that day he attended a game between the University of Maryland and the University of Iowa teams because Caitlin Clark was playing there. Klobuchar noted that the University of Iowa team is called the Hawkeyes, which is similar to the Atlanta Hawks name mentioned by Schmitt.

Klobuchar later cited the date of the game — February 3, 2024 — and noted that Clark scored 30 points. She said the senator should apologize for the false information, the assumption that Smith was in another city, and possible involvement in events in Georgia. During the hearing, Smith also testified about his role in the investigation into Trump’s actions after the 2020 election.