House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan formally requested the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute former special counsel Jack Smith for allegedly making false statements during a congressional deposition last year.
Jordan, R-Ohio, wrote in a letter to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche that Smith “seemingly made willfully and intentionally false statements of material fact that contradict new documents” the Senate Judiciary Committee obtained this month.
A Justice Department spokesperson confirmed receipt of the referral and said it “will investigate all evidence of criminal conduct.”
Smith has long been a target of President Donald Trump, who has disparaged him over his prosecutions of Trump.
The Allegation
Jordan cited an exchange from Smith’s deposition before the committee on Dec. 17, when Smith was asked whether he sought a “search warrant for the content of any text messages from Members.”
Smith responded, “No, I don’t recall that.”
Asked whether he had asked only for toll records of the members of Congress, Smith said, “Correct.”
Senate Republicans said last week they had obtained documents revealing Smith and his team reviewed text messages sent by 44 members of Congress as part of their investigations into Trump. The messages were sent by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, but mostly Republicans, to White House officials during Trump’s first term.
Smith’s team received the text messages from the National Archives in August 2023. They included messages from October 2020 through Jan. 21, 2021.
Smith’s Defense
Attorneys for Smith denied that he made any false statements, writing that he “provided truthful, responsive answers and candidly discussed his work as Special Counsel.”
“The referral is made not because Mr. Smith made a false statement — the letter concedes he did not — but because he did not proactively disclose information that was not responsive to a question asked,” lawyers Peter Koski and Lanny Breuer wrote.
They said the referral “reflects a chilling eagerness to weaponize the justice system by attacking a career, nonpartisan public servant who faithfully and fearlessly performed his duties by following the facts and the law.”
Democratic Response
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the ranking member of the committee, said Jordan’s referral “deliberately distorts and misstates the facts, including what questions the Republicans actually asked at Mr. Smith’s interview.”
“Congressional Republicans never asked Jack Smith about presidential records,” Raskin said.
Raskin argued that committee Republicans did not ask whether the messages from lawmakers were found on White House officials’ phones, whether the presidential records Smith subpoenaed included the messages, or whether Smith’s team had ever “reviewed text messages from Members.”
“Jack Smith could not have lied because Republican Members never even asked the question their theory is based on,” he said.
The Senate Investigation
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, whose own messages were among those reviewed, said in a statement that Smith’s team “ran roughshod over the Constitution even after repeated warnings.”
“Jack Smith has answering to do, and I intend to have him before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the coming months to hold him accountable,” Grassley said.
The Senate committee argued that because Smith’s team had not waited for a “Filter Team” to evaluate and segregate “privileged information” out of those messages, Smith and his team violated protections ensured by the Constitution’s Speech and Debate Clause.
The Bottom Line
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan has formally asked the Justice Department to prosecute former special counsel Jack Smith for allegedly making false statements during a congressional deposition. Jordan’s referral stems from newly obtained documents showing Smith’s team reviewed text messages from 44 members of Congress. Smith’s lawyers deny he made any false statements, and Democrats say Republicans never asked the questions they are now basing their theory on. The Justice Department said it will investigate.
