In the today's other headlines, the prosecutor who led criminal investigations of President Trump for the Department of Justice is in the spotlight today.

Former special counsel Jack Smith faced questions from Senate Republicans over his handling of two probes.

One focused on the president's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the other on the president's alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office.

Our justice correspondent Ally Rogan reports on today's hearing.

testimony you're about to give before the committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

So, help me God.

Nearly two years after criminal charges against President Donald Trump were dropped, the prosecutor who brought those charges said he'd do it all again.

If asked whether to prosecute a former president today based on the same facts, I would do so regardless of whether that president was a Republican or a Democrat.

Republicans argued Smith's prosecutions against the president were politically motivated and they directly attacked him.

You will go down as a total dirt bag.

You you you have no personal feelings.

You make me want to throw up in my mouth.

Senators questioned Smith's decision to seek congressional Republicans phone records in the leadup to the attack.

You subpoenaed records associated with my phones, both personal and office.

and you sought and obtained a court order to prevent me from knowing about it.

Do you know what I think?

I think you're just trying to bully my brother and other allies of President Trump.

And multiple Republicans accuse Smith of lying to Congress, including Missouri Senator Josh Holly.

It's the worst abuse of prosecutorial power in the history of the United States.

If it were up to me, I'd charge you with perjury.

Senator Eric Schmidt also accused Smith of lying but got his facts wrong.

He said Smith traveled to Georgia to collude with prosecutors who were conducting a separate criminal investigation against the president.

Schmidt pointed to a series of text messages which he said was a smoking gun.

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 February 3rd, 2024?

I'll give you a second to process it so you don't, you know, pjure yourself.

But Smith said he hadn't visited Georgia in that time and that he attended a different basketball game on that date in a different city featuring a team with a slightly different name.

Could it then be that University of Iowa's the Hawkeyes?

Could that be it?

And maybe before we show this kind of thing, it it was because Caitlyn Clark was coming to Maryland to play and so we went to the game.

Democrats on the committee said their colleagues were more focused on attacking Smith's record than seeking justice.

This committee has not done what we should be doing, which is investigating the crimes, and yet we're putting on trial the investigators.

Smith also criticized the Department of Justice under the current administration for firing career prosecutors who worked alongside him on January 6th investigations.

If you fire people who have the expertise to conduct investigations properly and to represent the United States in court properly, you are making our country less safe.

Today's hearing was the latest in the fight over politicization of the Department of Justice.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan called on the Department of Justice to prosecute Smith after accusing him of lying to the House during a closed door hearing last December.

For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Ali Rogin.