WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith told lawmakers in a closed-door interview Wednesday that his team of investigators “developed evidence beyond a reasonable doubt” that President Donald Trump criminally conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to portions of his opening statement obtained by The Associated Press.

He also said investigators amassed “compelling evidence” that Trump violated the law by accumulating classified documents from his first term at his property in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, and by obstructing the government's efforts to recover the files.

“I made my decisions in the investigation without regard to President Trump's political association, activities, beliefs or candidacy in the 2024 elections,” Smith said. “We acted based on what the facts and the law required, the lesson I learned early in my career as a prosecutor.”

He said that if asked if he would “prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, he would do so regardless of whether the president was a Republican or Democrat.”

The private deposition before the House Judiciary Committee gives Smith his first opportunity to face questions, albeit behind closed doors, about a pair of investigations into Trump that resulted in criminal charges later dropped between the Republican's first and second terms. Smith was subpoenaed earlier this month to provide both testimony and documents as part of a Republican investigation into investigations of Trump during the Biden administration.

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The former special counsel cooperated with Congress's lawsuit despite offering to publicly answer questions before the committee more than a month ago, a proposal his lawyers said was rejected by Republicans.

“By testifying before this committee, Jack is showing tremendous courage in light of the remarkable and unprecedented campaign of retaliation against him by this administration and this White House,” Lanny Breuer, one of his lawyers, told reporters on Wednesday. “Let's be clear: Jack Smith is a career prosecutor, who conducted this investigation based on the facts and the law and nothing else.”

Trump told reporters at the White House that he supported the idea of an open hearing, saying, "I would prefer to see him testify publicly. There's no way I can answer the questions."

Smith is expected to discuss both investigations into Trump, but will not answer questions requiring grand jury materials, which are restricted by law, according to a person familiar with the investigation but who requested anonymity. Smith is also expected to correct what he sees as Republican misconceptions about his work, including his team's use of phone records belonging to certain GOP lawmakers, the person said.

Smith was appointed in 2022 to oversee Justice Department investigations into Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden and his accumulation of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. His team brought charges in both investigations.

Smith dropped the cases after Trump was re-elected to the White House last year, citing legal opinions from the Justice Department that say a sitting president cannot be indicted.

Republicans, who control Congress, have sought interviews with at least some individual members of Smith's team.

In recent weeks, they have seized on revelations that the team, as part of its investigation, analyzed the phone records of select Congressional lawmakers. Republican Party around January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to try to stop the certification of Biden's victory. The phone records reviewed by prosecutors included only details about incoming and outgoing phone numbers and the length of the call, but not the content of the conversation.

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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.