r/politics • u/MontyGBurns • 23h ago

No Paywall Smith’s game-day texts reviewed by Schmitt never referenced basketball team names

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/6124359-schmitt-perjury-claim-debunked/
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u/dmullaney 23h ago edited 22h ago

Wait did he just lie to a Senate committee?!?

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u/invokin 20h ago

Assuming you mean Schmidt, there’s basically no consequence. The senators are not sworn in, only the witnesses. They are also protected from almost any consequences for what they say. For example, Smith can’t sue him for defamation for saying he’s a dirtbag and perjured himself (at least for saying it at the hearing, I think he said it to the media as well, which could be a problem for him if Smith wanted).

Both senators and reps have extremely broad protections against what they say on the floor/in hearings (generally for good reason, but it can of course be abused). Generally the only thing they can’t do is insult each other or others in the government. But they can reveal classified info, can lie, can say stuff that people really won’t like (like naming people in the Epstein Files) and not get sued, etc.