House Subpoenas Jack Smith Over Arctic Frost Fishing Expedition

The House Committee on the Judiciary has subpoenaed former Special Counsel Jack Smith to testify in a deposition as the committee digs into Smith’s politically motivated prosecutions of President Donald Trump and his associates during the 2024 election.

Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan’s letter demanded Smith appear to testify on Dec. 17, and instructed the former special counsel to turn over documents by Dec. 12.

Joe Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith in 2022 to oversee two investigations into Trump, one related to his retention of documents from his first presidency and the other related to views he expressed about the 2020 election. Months earlier, with Garland’s approval, the FBI had opened an investigation into Trump codenamed Arctic Frost, the overreaching fishing expedition related to critiques of the 2020 election that we now know caught Trump and more than 150 others in its dragnet.

As my colleague Shawn Fleetwood reported, recently released records show “communications between Smith’s team and Biden Justice Department (DOJ) officials about their plans to file subpoenas against more than eight GOP senators.” Smith’s tactics — up to and including the acquisition of senators’ phone records without their knowledge — have been blasted by Republicans as “brazen” and unconstitutional.

Jordan previously sent Smith an Oct. 14 letter noting that members of his former special counsel team had failed to cooperate with the investigation. Jay Bratt for example, “invoked the Fifth Amendment approximately 75 times during his interview.”

During its investigation, Smith’s team “sought to silence President Trump by restricting his public statements about the case, conducted an unnecessary and abusive raid of his residence, attempted to improperly pressure defense counsel with the promise of political patronage, and manipulated key evidence in the investigation,” Jordan alleged in his October letter.

Smith has also been uncooperative with the committee’s oversight investigation, failing to respond to document requests, according to Jordan. Now, Smith will have to appear to testify or risk being held in contempt.

The committee previously asked Smith to hand over documents relating to his appointment as special counsel, any communications with the Biden-Harris administration about his investigation, and communications related to his “charging decisions” and “tactics.”