Jim Jordan urges criminal charges against Jack Smith over alleged perjury
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) has issued a criminal referral to the Department of Justice against former Special Counsel Jack Smith, accusing him of lying to Congress about tracking personal phone messages of lawmakers. This follows longstanding Republican concerns regarding Smith’s activities at President Biden’s DOJ,where he obtained access to communication records of mainly Republican congress members as part of investigations related to Trump and other matters.
During testimony last December, Smith denied examining lawmakers’ texts, claiming he only collected toll records, which do not include message content. Though, Jordan alleges new evidence shows smith received text message content from the National Archives and Records Governance, and falsely stated he only sought toll records. Jordan accuses Smith of perjury and intentional false statements intended to obstruct congressional oversight, prompting the referral.
Background details reveal Smith’s team issued numerous subpoenas targeting over 430 individuals and organizations, mainly Republicans, including efforts to monitor the phone lines of nine Republican senators, including Ted Cruz. Republicans argue this is an abuse of process and a form of government weaponization. The DOJ has confirmed it will investigate the allegations. Smith is known for leading high-profile cases against Trump, including January 6 and classified documents investigations.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) on Wednesday issued a criminal referral of former special counsel Jack Smith to the Department of Justice over allegations he lied to Congress about tracking personal phone messages of dozens of lawmakers.
Republicans have long raised concerns about Smith’s time at President Joe Biden’s DOJ. Smith obtained subpoenas that allowed him to access communications records of mostly Republican lawmakers as part of the DOJ’s and FBI’s “Arctic Frost” investigation. Last week, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released data he said indicated Smith’s team reviewed text messages from 44 senators and representatives from both parties, though mostly Republican.
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During testimony before the House Judiciary Committee last December, Smith denied that he had examined the contents of lawmakers’ text messages. Jordan said in a letter this week to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche that he is submitting the criminal referral due to what he described as new evidence that Smith committed perjury. A DOJ official confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the department “will investigate all evidence of criminal conduct” in the referral.
“All individuals have an obligation to comply with a duly authorized congressional inquiry. Mr. Smith, a former public servant, is no different,” Jordan wrote in the letter, reported by Fox News. “Yet his testimony included intentionally false statements designed to obstruct the Committee’s oversight.”
“While Mr. Smith testified that he did not seek a search warrant from telecommunications carriers for the content of Members’ text messages, he failed to disclose that his office received text message content from [the National Archives and Records Administration] relating to White House personnel phone records,” Jordan wrote, accusing Smith of having “excluded information that was highly relevant to the Committee’s examination.”
During his House testimony last year, Smith claimed his team only sought telephone toll records.
“Toll records were sought for historical telephone routing information, collected after calls had taken place, identifying the incoming and outgoing call numbers, the time of the calls, and their duration,” he said. “Toll records do not include the content of calls.”
Smith is known for leading the Jan. 6, 2021, election-interference and classified-documents cases against President Donald Trump. The Arctic Frost investigation was triggered by Smith’s prosecution of Trump due to alleged election interference in 2020 in the Jan. 6 case. Cruz has said Smith sent subpoenas to AT&T for his cellphone records, voicemails, text messages, and geolocation data.
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Before saying last week that records prove Smith’s team reviewed personal text messages of 44 lawmakers, Grassley had said Smith issued 197 subpoenas to 34 individuals and 163 businesses, including financial institutions, as part of Arctic Frost, in conjunction with former FBI Director Christopher Wray. The subpoenas requested records and communications related to over 430 individuals and organizations, ”all of them appear to be aimed at Republicans,” according to Grassley. Cruz said last November that, in the investigation, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg signed off on subpoenas from Smith’s office that held “no basis,” ordering phone companies to allow the government to monitor the phone lines of nine Republican senators, including himself. Verizon complied with the subpoenas, while AT&T pushed back.
“When you have the Biden Department of Justice subpoenaing 20% of the Republicans in the Senate, it is an egregious abuse of process,” Cruz said. “It is a fishing expedition, and we need to have a full and thorough investigation and accountability for every executive branch official who signed off on weaponizing the government.”
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