Jack Smith walked into a Senate hearing room this morning with Donald Trump threatening to prosecute him, and he told the country Trump committed serious crimes anyway.
Republicans called Tuesday’s hearing to put Jack Smith on trial. Smith used his opening statement to walk senators through Trump’s alleged crimes one more time, on camera, and said he’d bring the same charges again today. Trump’s taxpayer-funded ad campaign picked up a legal threat overnight from the musician whose song it used without asking, on the same morning CNN reported Trump personally helped pick the footage for those “public service announcements.” The clip of Trump’s head dipping in the Oval Office is everywhere, because he mocked “sleepy Joe Biden” minutes before it happened. And prediction markets now give Canada’s Mark Carney, the face of the fight against Trump’s trade war, far better odds at the Nobel Peace Prize than Trump. There are 35 days until the midterms.
JACK SMITH STANDS UP TO TRUMP DESPITE THREATS OF PROSECUTION
Jack Smith sat down in front of a Senate committee this morning with the president threatening to indict him, and he didn’t take back a word.
Trump threatened in a January Truth Social post to have Smith criminally charged. The prosecutors and FBI agents who worked Smith’s two Trump investigations were fired after the 2024 election. Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee called Tuesday’s hearing to examine Smith’s alleged “abuse of authority,” and Chairman Chuck Grassley opened by calling his operation “a partisan weapon that broke the rules, lied to the court and engaged in bad faith throughout.” Grassley never mentioned what Smith was investigating: Trump’s effort to overturn an election he lost.
“Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation,” Smith said. “I stand by my decisions as special counsel, including my decision to bring charges against President Trump.”
He went through them. “Rather than accept his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results and prevent the lawful transfer of power,” Smith said. On the documents case: “After leaving office in January of 2021, President Trump illegally kept classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago social club and repeatedly tried to obstruct justice to conceal his continued retention of those documents.” He said Trump kept highly sensitive national security information in a bathroom and in a ballroom at an event space.
He took on the claim that it was all political. “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,” he said. “Grand juries in two separate districts reached this conclusion based on his actions as alleged in the indictments they returned.”
And he answered the threats. “I will not be silenced by the continued threats of prosecution from the president or others,” Smith said. On his fired staff, he didn’t hide his anger. “The fact that they have been targeted illegally, lost their jobs illegally, and had their lives turned upside down by this Department of Justice is an outrage,” he said.
Republicans came ready to grill him over phone records. One subpoena got basic call logs for several lawmakers, showing who called whom and for how long, which is lawful and routine in federal criminal cases. The texts they’re angry about came through a separate subpoena for White House staff phones, which picked up messages from members of Congress.
Republicans wanted a day about Jack Smith’s conduct. They got a witness saying under oath, on live TV, that Trump committed serious crimes.
MUSICIAN HITS TRUMP WITH LEGAL THREAT OVER PROPAGANDA AD
The artist behind the song in Trump’s taxpayer-funded ad has given the White House until Thursday to pull it.
Lawyers for singer-songwriter JMSN sent a cease-and-desist letter to Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, over the use of his song “Love Me” in a government-funded ad that first ran on Fox News last week. The ad repeats “love me” over images of flags and Trump. The letter demands the White House pull the song everywhere and confirm in writing by 5 p.m. Thursday that it has “ceased its infringing activities.”
The legal claim is false endorsement under the Lanham Act. “To be absolutely clear, JMSN does not want to be viewed as directly or indirectly affiliated with the President or his Administration,” the letter says. Using the song in “an overtly partisan, political advertisement” could make people “call into question JMSN’s artistic independence and integrity,” it adds.
JMSN, whose real name is Christian Berishaj, said it more plainly on Instagram. “It should go without saying that I would never authorize my music to be used for ANY political agenda or campaign,” he wrote. Either Trump’s team asked and he said no, he explained, or “the President illegally uses the song without asking.” It went the second way.
The White House says the ads are “public service announcements,” which is how it justifies paying for them with public money. On Tuesday, CNN reported that Trump was directly involved in making them, including helping pick the imagery and video.
The three ads have cost at least $1.7 million. Outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican, told NBC News he can’t stand them. “I hate it. I tell you, it feels like Viktor Orbán talking to the Hungarian people. There’s no place for that sort of thing,” he said.
Artists keep having to say no after the fact. In June, Ariana Grande told the White House not to use her song “Bye” in a video of ICE detentions, calling it “barbaric, inhumane, heinous nonsense,” and the song came down. In December 2025, Sabrina Carpenter called the White House “evil and disgusting” after her song “Juno” showed up in another immigration raid video.
Trump didn’t ask this time either. Now he has until Thursday.
TRUMP MOCKS “SLEEPY JOE” THEN NODS OFF ON CAMERA
Trump went after “sleepy Joe Biden” at his Oval Office event Monday. A few minutes later, cameras caught his head dipping forward.
He was announcing a $15 billion Mesabi Metallics steel plant in Iowa, expected to create 1,750 permanent jobs and start making steel around 2030. A project like this never would have happened “under sleepy Joe Biden,” Trump said.
Then other officials and executives took over, and the cameras stayed on Trump. He sat behind the Resolute Desk with his head dipping forward while they spoke. The footage doesn’t prove he was asleep, and the White House has denied before that he sleeps through public events. But some outlets reported he appeared to struggle to stay awake.
People noticed. Biden’s son posted about it. So did Gavin Newsom’s press office. Rep. Ted Lieu of California said Trump was “sleeping on the job.” MeidasTouch stitched the before and after into a SpongeBob meme. Molly Jong-Fast offered Trump something of a defense, with a dig at Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Trump built a whole political identity on the claim that Biden was too old and too tired for the job. He’s been using “sleepy Joe” for six years. On Monday, he said it and then got caught on camera looking exactly like what he’s been describing.
Republicans spent 2024 running on clips like this one. The case against Biden was built on footage of an old man looking tired in public. Trump’s plan for October is a campaign stop a day.
Every Republican on the ballot in 35 days is now tied to the guy making those clips.
MARK CARNEY IS BEATING TRUMP AT THE PRIZE TRUMP WANTS MOST
On Kalshi, the federally regulated prediction market, Mark Carney was at about 9 percent as of Monday afternoon, and he was the outright favorite at 14 percent earlier in the day. Trump is at 1 percent. On Polymarket, which has more money on it, Trump’s at 2 percent and Carney isn’t on the board. The prize is announced Friday, October 9.
Carney has become the face of Canada’s fight against Trump’s trade war, and that higher international profile may be why he’s shown up on the charts. The Trump administration has been floating EU-style tariffs on Canada over Carney’s pivot toward Europe.
Trump has wanted this prize for years. He lost the 2025 award to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who then dedicated it to him. Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney says she nominated him in January. The markets say he has about a 1 in 100 shot.
The front-runners are a different kind of nominee. The Emergency Response Rooms delivering aid in war-torn Sudan lead Kalshi at 14 percent, followed by Doctors Without Borders at 11 percent and Ukrainian children’s rights activist Mykola Kuleba and his Save Ukraine initiative at 10 percent.
Kalshi also gives Carney a 20 percent shot at Time’s Person of the Year, second only to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani at 30 percent. Trump’s been in public fights with Carney for months and in a public friendship with Mamdani for nearly a year.
The Nobel committee doesn’t reveal nominees, and the odds move constantly. For now, Trump is trailing the man he picked a trade war with.
