House committee urges DOJ to charge former Trump prosecutor Jack Smith
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan has referred former special counsel Jack Smith to the Justice Department for potential criminal charges, alleging Smith lied to Congress about subpoenaed records. Smith's legal team has dismissed these allegations as spurious.
Why it matters
The referral highlights ongoing political friction regarding the oversight of special counsel investigations and the handling of congressional inquiries.
The Republican chair of the House Judiciary Committee encouraged the Justice Department to look into criminally charging Jack Smith, alleging the former special counsel who brought charges against President Trump lied to Congress â allegations Smith's lawyers called "spurious."The criminal referral Wednesday from Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio stems from last year's revelation that investigators obtained several Republican lawmakers' phone records as part of a probe into Mr. Trump's actions after the 2020 election. In a deposition last year, Smith testified that his team didn't receive the contents of any phone calls or text messages since the records sought were "tolling records," which only include details like the numbers a person called.But last week, the Justice Department told lawmakers that in a separate subpoena for records held by the National Archives and Records Administration, Smith's team obtained text messages between Trump-era White House staffers and dozens of members of Congress.In…
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