GOP senator airballs perjury claim against Jack Smith over apparent Hawks/Hawkeyes mixup

Add to Google‘A total dirtbag’: GOP senator mistakenly accuses Smith of perjury over NBA game08:06Get more newsonShareAdd NBC News to GoogleSept. 29, 2026, 4:51 PM EDTBy Rebecca Shabad, Julie Tsirkin and Dareh GregorianHis slam dunk was a brick.

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., on Tuesday accused former special counsel Jack Smith of committing perjury when he denied attending 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 February 3, 2024?” Schmitt asked.

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

Sen. Eric Schmit during a committee hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Sept. 29, 2026.Chip Somodevilla / Getty ImagesSchmitt pressed him again if 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,” he added.

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“What would you say if I had a series of text messages from your team that said you were in Atlanta, at a Warrior-Hawks game, on Feb. 3, 2024, the day after Willis and (Nathan) Wade announced their affair?” Schmitt continued as a staffer held up a poster board that had three text messages about Smith going to an event.

The staffer quickly took the poster down as Smith looked on, appearing confused.

“I don’t think you know that we have this stuff, so I’ll give you a second to process it so you don’t perjure yourself,” Schmitt said.

Smith complained it had been taken down too quickly and he hadn’t gotten to look at it. “I think you’ve already perjured yourself,” Schmitt told him, adding later that he’d go down in history as “a total dirtbag.”

Jack Smith during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on Sept. 29.Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty ImagesSmith said the only game he remembered going to around that time was a University of Maryland basketball game against the Iowa State Hawkeyes featuring star player Caitlin Clark. “The Marshals Service was there with me. You could check if that was the exact date,” Smith said.

The next questioner was Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who had checked the date of the game Smith referenced.

“We have confirmed that, in fact, you are right, Mr. Smith. Iowa, the Iowa Hawkeyes, played Maryland on February 3, 2024. The final score was 93 to 85. Iowa won, and Caitlin Clark scored over, scored 30 points,” and the game was in Maryland, she said.

She also chided Schmitt for appearing to mix up the Hawks and the Hawkeyes.

“I would just say for a U.S. senator to have false information and imply based on a confusion about the name of a team, which I knew, knowing my Midwestern sports, and imply that you were in another city, that you were somehow involved that day in what was happening in Georgia, and then call you a dirtbag is something that deserves an apology,” Klobuchar said.

Schmitt did not apologize. Asked by NBC News afterward if he still thought Smith had perjured himself, “We’ll find out. That’s going to be up to a prosecutor to determine. My job here today was to ask questions and get answers.”

Despite the flub, Schmitt was praised for the exchange by some right wing commentators and outlets. Pro-Trump influencer Benny Johnson posted on X that Schmitt “CAUGHT Jack Smith perjuring himself” and “pulled out the receipts.” The post appeared to be taken down by the late afternoon.

Schmitt later went on the Charlie Kirk Show, where one of the hosts praised him for the “great moment.” “Good for you on that,” host Andrew Kolvet said.

“Gotta give you some flowers for that, sir,” he told the senator, saying Smith “sat there acting dumbfounded and completely clueless.”

“It was the only NBA or NCAA men’s game going on at that time in Atlanta. He claimed later that he was at another game,” Schmitt responded. “Here’s the thing — my job is to ask the questions. If that’s what his answer is, that’s what his answer is.”

Rebecca ShabadRebecca Shabad is a politics reporter for NBC News based in Washington.

Julie TsirkinJulie Tsirkin is a correspondent covering Capitol Hill and the White House.

Dareh GregorianDareh Gregorian is a politics reporter for NBC News.