The top Republican on the Dwelling Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the Justice Division on Wednesday inquiring for a criminal investigation of primitive special counsel Jack Smith, alleging he made false statements at some level of a congressional deposition last year.
Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, wrote in a letter to acting Licensed expert Widespread Todd Blanche that Smith “seemingly made willfully and deliberately false statements of topic topic indisputable truth that contradict fresh documents” the Senate Judiciary Committee bought this month.
Jordan requested the Justice Division to investigate Smith for a criminal price, writing that his committee found “sturdy evidence” against him.
A spokesperson for the Justice Division confirmed receipt of the referral and said Wednesday that it “will investigate all evidence of criminal behavior.”
Smith has lengthy been a purpose of President Donald Trump, who has disparaged him over his prosecutions of Trump.
Fox News first reported Jordan’s referral.
In a letter to Jordan and Blanche, attorneys for Smith denied that he made any false statements at some level of his deposition, writing that he “equipped fair, responsive answers and candidly discussed his work as Special Counsel.”
“The referral is made now not because Mr. Smith made a false assertion — the letter concedes he did now not — but because he did now not proactively describe knowledge that modified into once now not attentive to a demand requested,” attorneys Peter Koski and Lanny Breuer wrote.
The pair said the referral “reflects a chilling eagerness to weaponize the justice gadget by attacking a occupation, nonpartisan public servant who faithfully and fearlessly performed his responsibilities by following the facts and the regulations.”
A spokesperson from the committee defended the referral in an announcement on Thursday.
“No one is above the regulations, and that gains Jack Smith,” the spokesperson said. “Statements he made earlier to the Committee are contradicted by the evidence and impeded the Committee’s inquiry of the Biden-Harris Administration’s weaponized Justice Division.”
As special counsel, Smith oversaw two investigations starting up in 2022. One alive to about election interference within the 2020 presidential election and the diverse on allegations that Trump mishandled classified documents after his first time period ended. Trump denied any wrongdoing in both conditions, which had been disregarded in 2024 after he modified into once elected to a second time period. Long-standing Justice Division protection prevents a sitting president from being prosecuted.
Jordan cited an change from Smith’s deposition earlier to the committee on Dec. 17, when Smith modified into once requested whether or now not he sought a “search warrant for the dispute material of any textual dispute material messages from Contributors.”
Smith spoke back, “No, I don’t recall that.”
Asked whether or now not he had requested ethical for toll data of the members of Congress, Smith said, “Wonderful.”
Secure. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the ranking member of the committee, said in an announcement Wednesday that Jordan’s referral “deliberately distorts and misstates the facts, including what questions the Republicans truly requested at Mr. Smith’s interview.”
“Congressional Republicans in no way requested Jack Smith about presidential data,” Raskin said.
Raskin argued that committee Republicans did now not expect of whether or now not the messages from lawmakers had been found on White Dwelling officials’ phones, whether or now not the presidential data Smith subpoenaed included the messages or whether or now not Smith’s crew had ever “reviewed textual dispute material messages from Contributors.”
“Jack Smith would possibly well now not maintain lied because Republican Contributors in no way even requested the demand their concept relies on,” he said.
Senate Republicans said last week that they’d bought documents from the Justice Division revealing Smith and his crew reviewed textual dispute material messages sent by 44 members of Congress as fragment of their investigations into Trump.
The documents the Senate Judiciary Committee bought level to that the messages had been sent by lawmakers on all sides of the aisle, but largely Republicans, to White Dwelling officials at some level of Trump’s first time period.
Smith’s crew received the textual dispute material messages from the National Archives and Records Administration in August 2023. They included textual dispute material messages from October 2020 thru Jan. 21, 2021, the committee said on July 14.
The Senate Judiciary Committee argued that because Smith’s crew had now not waited for a “Filter Crew” to maintain in thoughts and segregate “privileged knowledge” out of those messages, Smith and his crew violated protections ensured by the Structure’s Speech and Debate Clause.
“Smith’s crew ran roughshod over the Structure even after repeated warnings,” committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in an announcement on July 14. “Jack Smith has answering to invent, and I intend to maintain him earlier to the Senate Judiciary Committee within the arriving months to preserve him guilty.”
Grassley modified into once on the checklist of members whose messages had been reviewed, alongside with Jordan, primitive Dwelling Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and longtime Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Rand Paul, R-Ky.
