Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) displayed an image of the death of Trump supporter Roseanne Boyland on the steps of the U.S. Capitol during a Senate hearing featuring former special counsel Jack Smith, according to posts circulating on social media — an image that Republicans seized on as evidence of Schiff's carelessness and the hearing's underlying chaos.
The hearing, which Smith attended to answer questions about his investigations into former President Donald Trump, quickly devolved into a partisan brawl. Republicans accused Smith of abusing his power, while Democrats accused Republicans of refusing to subpoena Smith's final report and instead attacking the man personally.
According to a post from @gatewaypundit, Schiff "accidentally" showed the image during the hearing. The post, published Tuesday evening, described the moment as an "Oops!" moment and mocked Schiff as "pencil-neck Adam Schiff" — an insult the Gateway Pundit post repeated. The same headline and description were also published by the London Times, according to coverage aggregators, suggesting the story was picked up widely.
The hearing featured testimony from Smith, who has been under fire from Republicans since his appointment as special counsel. At one point, Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) questioned Smith about his whereabouts on a particular night, noting that he had information that Smith attended a basketball game. Schmitt referenced an NBA game in Atlanta and asked Smith if he was there.
"He answered the question," Schmitt said, according to a transcript of the exchange published by the account @Acyn. "So that's what these hearings are for. You ask questions, you get answers. You know, Jack Smith has perjured himself before, but if he says he's at the game, maybe he's a Katelyn Clark fan. We'll accept that. Okay. What? I'm sorry. He accused Jack Smith of perjury in the moment and said don't perjure yourself. And then he ended his questions by calling him a dirtbag. Those were his exact words. So my point was don't call someone a dirtbag when you don't have your own facts right."
Schmitt's remarks came in response to a previous line of questioning in which another senator accused Smith of perjury and called him a "dirtbag." The exchange illustrated the raw tensions that ran through the hearing.
Schiff, for his part, used his time to attack Republicans for not subpoenaing Smith's report. In a video posted to his official account, Schiff said: "I would think if our chairman and our Republican colleagues really wanted to get to the facts, they'd want to see that report. They want to see the facts. Let's show them the facts, but they don't want to see the facts. They could have asked for your report. They don't want to see your report. They don't want the country to see your report. No, they want to come in here today and call you a dirtbag because that means they don't have to confront any of the evidence you produced."
The hearing also touched on the so-called "Arctic Frost" investigation, which has become a flashpoint for Republicans. In a video posted by @OANN, a speaker — identified only as a participant in the hearing — compared the Arctic Frost probe to the Mueller investigation, calling them the two greatest abuses of power in the nation's history.
"I think Senator Ted Cruz is almost right," the speaker said. "I actually think the Arctic Frost investigation by Jack Smith is the second largest abuse of power in the history of the country, the first one being the Mueller investigation. The irony of this is that I believe Smith's raid on Mar-a-Lago, a raid on the home of a former president of the United States, was an effort to get those classified documents that proved, as Tulsi Gabbard let us all know with her declassification, that the Russian collusion matter was indeed a seditious conspiracy, a hoax hooked up to deprive Donald Trump from the presidency that he won in a fair election in 2016. So this is, at a minimum, the second greatest abuse of power in our history, perhaps the second greatest political dirty trick. Remember Watergate? Remember how all the Democrats and the liberals in the press went crazy because supporters of Richard Nixon planted bugs in the Democrat national headquarters, which never actually worked? In this case, Jack Smith was spying on at least eight members of the U.S. Senate, all Republicans, and a number of President Trump's key supporters and friends, including yours truly. Where are the civilitarians now? Where is the ACLU now? Where are those who are so concerned about civil liberties now? They're nowhere to be found."
The claim that Smith was spying on senators and Trump supporters is a serious allegation that has not been independently confirmed by Next News Network.
Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist also weighed in, according to a post from @RedState, which quoted her as saying, "I'm Sickened by This" in response to the Arctic Frost revelations. The RedState post did not provide additional context for her remarks, but the headline suggested she was reacting to new information about the scope of Smith's investigation.
Not everyone was focused on the hearing itself. The account @emptywheel, a frequent critic of Trump, pushed back on the claim that Smith was targeting million-dollar donors. In a post published Tuesday night, @emptywheel wrote: "WOWOWOW. @jimpfaff is a masochist. No honey. Donald Trump went after those million donors and defrauded them. Jack Smith was attempting to investigate that crime."
The post appeared to be a response to another user's claim about Smith's investigation, though the original post was not included in the thread. The exchange highlighted the ongoing dispute over the nature of Smith's probes and who was truly targeting whom.
The hearing also generated broader coverage, with live updates from other outlets noting that Smith defended his probes amid grilling from Republicans. Those updates also mentioned that Trump was hosting AI leaders at the White House and that NBC News was talking to voters ahead of the midterm elections — a reminder that the hearing was just one of several political storylines unfolding on Tuesday.
Next News Network could not independently verify the claim that Schiff displayed an image of Roseanne Boyland's death during the hearing, nor could it verify the details of the Arctic Frost investigation as described by hearing participants. The posts and transcripts cited in this article represent the accounts of those who were present or who claim to have knowledge of the events. Readers should treat the underlying claims as unconfirmed allegations rather than established facts.
Our Take
The Democrats and their media allies want you to believe this hearing was about accountability. It wasn't. It was about protecting Jack Smith's legacy and shielding the American people from the truth about his weaponized investigation. Adam Schiff — the same man who spent years peddling the Russia hoax — accidentally showed an image of a Trump supporter killed at the Capitol, and instead of answering for it, he pivoted to attacking Republicans for not subpoenaing a report he knows is full of exculpatory evidence for Trump.
The real story here is the Arctic Frost investigation. If the allegations are true — that Smith spied on eight Republican senators and Trump's close associates — then this is not just an abuse of power. It is a scandal that makes Watergate look like a parking ticket. The ACLU and the so-called civil libertarians are silent because they never cared about civil liberties. They cared about power. And now that power is being turned against them, they have nothing to say.
Republicans need to stop calling people names and start subpoenaing documents. If Smith's report is as damning as Schiff claims, then release it. Let the American people see the evidence. But Schiff doesn't want that. He wants to call witnesses dirtbags and hope the country doesn't notice that the real dirtbag is the man who turned the Justice Department into a political weapon.
