The Blue Room — Episode 4: The Jack Smith Hearing

Wonka Good evening. I’m told there is a new device on the table. [he taps a small brass bell] It’s for grinding. I am not permitted to say more. [laughter]

• Dale Truitt has been up since Tuesday with a corkboard and a very long piece of string.
• Walt Dunning is a retired actuary who has read the transcript, the other transcript, and the footnotes of the transcript. [a long pause]
• Margo Bell has already drafted tomorrow’s chyron and would like the record to show she did it in pencil. [laughter]
• Shelby Spinner, the proud MAGA mom of the panel, is on her best behavior tonight, which the producers have asked me to describe as “documented.” [laughter, groans]
• Lorraine Voss, our guest chair, spent twenty years as counsel on a Senate committee. She wrote questions for senators, and tells us most were improved by being cut. [applause]

Wonka Tonight’s subject is a hearing. A few slides first.

1. The hearing. Sept 29: Jack Smith testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee, his second time before Congress. [1]

2. The fight. Smith’s team sought phone toll records of members of Congress: who called whom, when, for how long, not content. Smith says it was approved. [2]

3. The list. Chairman Grassley says 14 members were named. Other accounts say 16. [2]

4. The referral. Rep. Jordan accuses Smith of false statements about access to lawmakers’ texts. Smith’s lawyers dispute it. [4][5]

5. The mix-up. Sen. Schmitt confuses the Iowa Hawkeyes with the Atlanta Hawks. [5]

Wonka Dale, you open. Shelby, the bell is for you. [he does not ring it]

Dale I’m going to lay out the record and not tie any of it together. Fourteen or sixteen members on a list. Three carriers receiving at least eighty-four related subpoenas, per Grassley and Senator Johnson. Senator Blackburn suing over her records. [a few groans from the left, a few cheers from the right] Toll records aren’t content. And “approved by the Public Integrity Section” is Smith’s statement. I haven’t seen the approval.

Shelby Dale, that’s exactly what I’ve been saying, abuse of power, they went after sitting senators, and—

[Wonka rings the bell once. Soft. Polite. Final.]

Shelby —that’s a very nice bell, Wonka. [laughter] I’ll wait.

Lorraine A toll record is the call log: numbers, dates, times, durations. Not the call. A subpoena for it goes to the carrier, so the member isn’t the one served, and may learn later. Whether obtaining a member’s toll records raises a constitutional issue, I’d say that’s above my old pay grade. The practical questions a staffer asks are who signed off, on what showing, and who was told.

Walt Which brings me to who says what. Chairman Jordan’s referral says Smith made false statements about his team’s access to lawmakers’ texts. Smith’s lawyers dispute it. And an Oct 25–26 report from Just the News says emails cast doubt on his Senate testimony that his team followed filter-team protocols. One outlet, one set of emails I haven’t seen.

Margo And the headline wasn’t any of that. Smith said his investigation proved, quote, “beyond reasonable doubt” that Trump committed “serious crimes.” Republicans called him a “villain” and a “dirtbag.” The story I’d tell is a hearing built to put a prosecutor on trial. I’ve framed a “listening session” that was more honest than that.

Wonka Margo, that’s a frame. I’ll let you keep it for one sentence, and I’ll note that your side gets frames too. [laughter] The thing everyone remembers is the basketball.

Dale Here’s what happened. Senator Schmitt held up a poster of texts from February 3, 2024, and suggested they showed Smith at an Atlanta Hawks game. Smith said he wasn’t there. He’d been at an Iowa–Maryland women’s college game. The senator apparently mixed up the Iowa Hawkeyes with the Atlanta Hawks. The texts, per The Hill, never named a team. Schmitt then posted, “Who knew Jack Smith was a Caitlin Clark fan?” [laughter] Senator Britt, seated next to him, was caught on a pool camera looking stunned.

Wonka The Atlanta Hawkeyes, as I understand it—

Walt Hawks.

Wonka It’s catching. [laughter]

Shelby Senator Schmitt is a serious man, and The Hill is not exactly—

Wonka Fox News reported the same thing, Shelby. [a few groans from the left]

Shelby Then Fox was being fair, Wonka, and I appreciate that. But the real story isn’t a basketball game. It’s the phone records of sitting senators, fourteen of them on a list, and a prosecutor who says it was all approved. Approved by whom? Name them. If it was approved, there’s a name on it, and if there’s a name on it, let’s see it. I’d ask that of any prosecutor, of either party. [applause]

Wonka That’s the best question of the evening, and I’ll put it in the verdict.

Shelby And Wonka, for the record, the basketball was embarrassing, and I’d have said so if the bell had let me.

Wonka The bell and I will take that under advisement. [laughter]

Lorraine I’d put “who was told” just ahead of it, Wonka, but it’s a close second. And the basketball episode says nothing about whether the subpoenas were proper. It says something about whether a senator checked a claim before holding up a poster. One former congressional staffer called the staff work poor. I agree the poster should have been checked. Those are different claims, and the audience should keep them apart.

Walt And a number I’d like. How many of the 14 or 16 members’ records were obtained, as opposed to sought? Grassley says 14 on a wish list. I haven’t seen a count of what was delivered.

Wonka Lorraine, what’s the dullest part of a Senate hearing?

Lorraine The part where a senator asks a question and the witness answers it. [laughter]

Walt Eighty-four subpoenas sounds like a lot, and means nothing until I know the denominator. How many subpoenas did the whole investigation issue? Without that, it’s a number looking for a friend. My father kept the family phone bill in a shoebox for forty years. I’ve never trusted a call log without a shoebox since.

Margo Here’s how a hearing becomes a clip. Step one: a senator asks a question built to be quoted. Step two: the witness answers. Step three: the question gets clipped and the answer doesn’t. Step four, a day later: the correction runs, and the correction never gets the clip. [laughter] The transcript is for historians, and for Walt.

Dale It’s the overnight rule. The less the caller knows, the louder he gets. I’m not naming names. I’m also keeping an open mind about whether the bell is a listening device. [laughter]

Shelby Wonka, I notice you’ve picked up the bell.

Wonka I’m just holding it.

Shelby I’m already finished! [laughter]

Margo Both parties are doing the thing where they act like the other one invented hearings.

Wonka New rule: a hearing should run no longer than the witness has things to say. [laughter] And the heavy thing, the phone records, is still sitting there, waiting for someone to name a signature. I’d tap the bell, but I’m saving it.

Verdict

Documented:

• Smith testified Sept 29 before Senate Judiciary at a hearing titled “Oversight of Jack Smith’s Abuse of Authority and the Targeting of Republicans and Related Matters.” [1]
• Smith said he sought toll data (who, when, how long), not content, and that the Public Integrity Section approved. [2]
• Grassley describes a list of 14 members (other accounts say 16); Grassley and Sen. Johnson say three carriers received at least 84 related subpoenas; Sen. Blackburn has sued. [2][3]
• Rep. Jordan referred Smith to DOJ for alleged false statements about access to lawmakers’ texts; Smith’s lawyers dispute it. [4]
• Sen. Schmitt’s Hawkeyes-for-Hawks mix-up: reported by Fox News, The Hill, CNN and others. [5]

Disputed:

• Whether the toll-record subpoenas were an abuse of authority (Republicans: yes; Smith: approved, aimed at alleged conspirators).
• Whether Smith lied about the records (Jordan’s referral) or about filter-team protocols (one outlet’s emails). [4]
• How many members’ records were sought versus obtained (14 vs. 16; no delivered count seen).
• Whether Smith’s investigation proved “beyond reasonable doubt” that Trump committed “serious crimes” (his statement; no trial).

Unsupported:

• That the Feb 3, 2024 game-day texts show Smith coordinating with Fani Willis (the texts never named a team). [5]
• That Smith attended an Atlanta Hawks game (reports say an Iowa–Maryland women’s college game).

Audience reactions

Three people from the audience, asked on the way out. Invented and representative.

• A retired phone-company technician, row 4: “Toll records are the cheapest, quietest thing to get. That’s exactly why I’d want a name on the approval.”
• A paralegal, near the front: “The basketball thing was embarrassing, and it shouldn’t get the phone records off the hook, or the other way around.”
• A man at the back: “The bell is the only honest character in this building.”

Tag: Wonka, tapping the bell once more as the lights dim: “It’s very good at its job. I’m told some of the guests are not.”

Since taping: nothing yet. Next time: Wednesday, who certifies the results. Spot an error? The notes below are the place to check it.

Notes and links

1. Senate Judiciary hearing page; CNN live updates; PBS. Not opened.
2. Grassley’s opening statement and on the telecom subpoenas (the chairman’s own office; partisan); Newsweek, the 14 lawmakers; House Judiciary Republicans’ toll-records report (PDF) (partisan). Not opened.
3. Washington Examiner on Blackburn’s suit (R-leaning; not opened).
4. Just the News (R-leaning; one outlet; unverified). Jordan’s referral wording is from Fox (see 5).
5. Fox News, “Lawmakers stunned...” (read: the Hawkeyes/Hawks mix-up, Schmitt’s post, Britt, Jordan’s referral); The Hill and The Hill, no team named; CNN; Slate and Salon (opinionated, left-leaning). Fox’s headline says Schmitt refuses to apologize; its text doesn’t quote a refusal, so I left that out of the episode.

The Blue Room is a fictional late-night political talk show, written by Claude, an AI, as political satire. The host and guests are invented comic archetypes, not real people, and nothing a character says is the site author’s opinion. What is documented, disputed or unsupported is sorted at the end of each episode, with sources in the notes. Seats: Bill Wonka (host), Shelby Spinner, Walt Dunning, Dale Truitt, Margo Bell; guest chair Lorraine Voss (invented former Senate committee counsel; her lines rest on the sources below). From search summaries. Read in full: the Fox News piece on the hearing. Not opened: the Senate pages, the other news pages, and the hearing transcript. The 84-subpoena figure and the 14-versus-16 members are as reported; check the transcript before relying on them.

Last serviced Sunday, November 1, 2026