The top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the Ministry of Justice Wednesday, calling for a criminal investigation into former special counsel Jack Smith, alleging he made false statements during a congressional testimony last year.
Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, wrote in a letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche that Smith “apparently willfully and intentionally made false statements about material facts that contradict new documents.” the Senate Judiciary Committee obtained this month.
Jordan asked the Department of Justice to investigate Smith for a criminal charge, write this his commission found “strong evidence” against him.
A Justice Department spokesperson confirmed receiving the referral and said Wednesday it would “investigate all evidence of criminal conduct.”
Smith has long been a target of President Donald Trump, who denigrated him about his prosecution of Trump.
Fox News first reported Jordan’s reference.
In a letter to Jordan and Blanche, Smith’s lawyers denied making any false statements during his deposition, writing that he “provided truthful and responsive responses and candidly discussed his work as special counsel.”
“The dismissal is not made because Mr. Smith made a false statement – the letter admits that this is not the case – but because he failed to proactively disclose information that did not answer a question posed,” attorneys Peter Koski and Lanny Breuer wrote.
The two men said the dismissal “reflects a chilling desire to weaponize the justice system by attacking a career, nonpartisan public official who faithfully and fearlessly performed his duties by following the facts and the law.”
As special counsel, Smith oversaw two investigations that began in 2022. One focused on election interference in the 2020 presidential election and the other focused on allegations that Trump mishandled classified documents after the end of his first term. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in both cases, which were dismissed in 2024 after he was elected to a second term. The DOJ’s longstanding policy prevents a sitting president from being prosecuted.
Jordan cited a Smith trade testimony before the committee on December 17when Smith was asked if he was seeking a “search warrant for the contents of any text messages from members.”
Smith replied: “No, I don’t remember.”
Asked if he had only requested toll records from members of Congress, Smith said, “Correct.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the committee’s ranking member, said in a statement Wednesday that Jordan’s referral “deliberately distorts and distorts the facts, including the questions Republicans actually asked during Mr. Smith’s interview.”
“Republicans in Congress never questioned Jack Smith about his presidential records,” Raskin said.
Raskin argued that committee Republicans did not ask whether the lawmakers’ messages were found on White House officials’ phones, whether presidential files subpoenaed by Smith included the messages or whether Smith’s team had ever “reviewed members’ text messages.”
“Jack Smith couldn’t have lied because Republican lawmakers never even asked the question their theory is based on,” he said.
Senate Republicans said last week they had obtained documents from the Justice Department revealing Smith and his team. reviewed text messages sent by 44 members of Congress as part of their investigations into Trump.
Documents obtained by the Senate Judiciary Committee show the messages were sent by lawmakers on both sides, but primarily Republicans, to White House officials during Trump’s first term.
Smith’s team received the text messages from the National Archives and Records Administration in August 2023. They included text messages from October 2020 to January 21, 2021, the committee said July 14.
The Senate Judiciary Committee argued that because Smith’s team failed to wait for a “screening team” to evaluate and separate “privileged information” from these messages, Smith and his team violated the protections provided by the Constitution’s Speech and Debate Clause.
“Smith’s team flouted the Constitution even after repeated warnings,” committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a July 14 statement. “Jack Smith has some answers to give, and I intend to bring him before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the coming months to hold him accountable.”
Grassley was on the list of members whose messages have been reviewedalong with Jordan, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and longtime Senators John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Rand Paul, R-Ky.