{"id":6977,"date":"2026-07-23T04:33:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T04:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=6977"},"modified":"2026-07-23T04:33:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T04:33:49","slug":"gop-chair-of-house-judiciary-committee-asks-justice-department-to-consider-prosecuting-jack-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=6977","title":{"rendered":"GOP chair of House Judiciary Committee asks Justice Department to consider prosecuting Jack Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>\n            Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, on Wednesday night asked the Justice Department to consider criminally charging special counsel Jack Smith, who previously prosecuted President Donald Trump, according to a letter sent to DOJ obtained by CNN.\n    <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=6975\">Watch an orca ram a sunfish so hard that the fish explodes<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n            Jordan alleges Smith misled the committee in closed-door testimony late last year. Jordan\u2019s concerns are largely based around Smith\u2019s team of prosecutors obtaining text messages between Trump administration officials and members of Congress in their investigation of Trump and his top aides\u2019 response to his 2020 election loss, according to the criminal referral letter Jordan sent to DOJ.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The Justice Department\u2014with Trump\u2019s primary defense attorney at the time, Todd Blanche, now leading the department and on the verge of Senate confirmation as attorney general\u2014 has already responded that it \u201cwill investigate all evidence of criminal conduct,\u201d according to a spokesperson. The spokesperson confirmed the Department has received Jordan\u2019s referral.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Jordan\u2019s criminal referral on Smith, and the Justice Department\u2019s swift response, fulfills a longtime Republican wish to investigate and potentially prosecute Smith.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Trump himself has called for Smith to be jailed, especially since he earned the dismissal of the criminal charges Smith had brought against him and returned to the presidency last year.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The Justice Department regularly receives criminal referrals from Congress, and the department then decides whether it merits charges or even an investigation. The current Republican-led Congress has asked the Justice Department to investigate others from the Smith investigation who haven\u2019t been charged.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            But the current makeup of DOJ, and the known wishes of the president to criminally pursue Smith and rewrite the findings of his investigation and the public record of January 6, 2021, make Jordan\u2019s move a notable escalation.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Smith\u2019s lawyers, in a response letter sent to Jordan and Blanche late Wednesday and obtained by CNN, say Smith\u2019s answers about his investigation looking at members\u2019 communications were \u201cunimpeachably truthful\u201d and that Jordan\u2019s accusation that Smith made a false statement is \u201cspurious.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Ranking Member Jamie Raskin blasted the GOP move, saying in a statement, \u201cThis referral, if ever brought before a judge, will get laughed out of court. But success on the merits is not the goal. It is meant to harass Jack Smith.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The Maryland Democrat added, \u201cIt is meant to whitewash their own participation in a scheme to overthrow our elections.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<h2>\n        Accusation of \u2018half-truths\u2019<br \/>\n<\/h2>\n<p>\n            In Jordan\u2019s letter, he accuses Smith of taking investigative steps to \u201cspy on Members of Congress\u201d and says Smith made \u201chalf-truths\u201d in a December deposition on Capitol Hill when responding about records related to members of Congress that had become part of evidence the Smith prosecutors reviewed.\n    <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=6965\">Secret Service agent on Vance\u2019s detail suspected of leaking information is put on leave amid internal review<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n            Jordan specifically asks the Justice Department to examine whether Smith broke the law that bars making false statements to Congress.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            In his allegation, the committee chair says Smith testified he hadn\u2019t pursued the content of member\u2019s communications. Smith testified his team had only secured search warrants for logs of incoming and outgoing calls, known as toll records, but not the content itself.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Smith\u2019s counsel argues that Jordan has made no real claim of a lie.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cThe referral is made not because Mr. Smith made a false statement\u2014the letter concedes he did not\u2014but because he did not proactively disclose information that was not responsive to a question asked,\u201d the letter on behalf of Smith, written by his lawyers Lanny Breuer and Peter Koski, said. \u201cThis referral reflects a chilling eagerness to weaponize the justice system by attacking a career, nonpartisan public servant who faithfully and fearlessly performed his duties by following the facts and the law.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Jordan\u2019s letter says records the House Republicans obtained earlier this month show \u201cthat Mr. Smith\u2019s team obtained text messages of 44 Members of Congress\u2014implicating both Republicans and Democrats in both chambers of Congress\u2014that may have included privileged content.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Yet when the special counsel\u2019s office collected text messages and the content of communications of members, those records came from the National Archives\u2019 compendium of official White House phones in the first Trump administration, according to records that have been released and Jordan\u2019s letter. At the time, the prosecutors were pursuing the messages of top officials around Trump leading up to and on January 6, 2021, and members of Congress had been messaging with some of those executive branch officials.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Members of Congress have also been up in arms for months over the Smith special counsel office obtaining the toll records from phone companies, calling it a violation of Congress\u2019 constitutionally protected privacy. Communications related to legislative work are generally protected from being used in criminal proceedings by prosecutors, under the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            It\u2019s been well-known for years \u2014 and not unlawful \u2014 that Smith\u2019s team obtained toll records and other records of members, including some who were in touch with the Trump White House leading up to the Capitol riot and during the attempt to block the electoral college certification of a Biden presidency. Those types of investigative approaches are common practice in federal criminal cases. No members of Congress nor White House officials other than Trump were charged by Smith.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Smith\u2019s lawyers also say his special counsel office\u2019s work didn\u2019t breach members of Congress\u2019 Constitutional protections when they obtained the Trump White House phones\u2019 messages.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The Speech or Debate Clause \u201cdoes not prevent prosecutors from using or reviewing text messages between Members of Congress and members of the Executive Branch in an investigation and prosecution of an Executive Branch official, which is precisely what happened here,\u201d the response letter said.\n    <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=6964\">Democrats zero in on Nevada and South Carolina to kick off 2028 presidential primary calendar<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n<em>This story has been updated with additional details.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<em>Hannah Rabinowitz contributed to this report.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, on Wednesday night asked the Justice Department to consider criminally charging special counsel Jack Smith, who previously prosecuted President Donald Trump, according to a letter sent to DOJ obtained by CNN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>GOP chair of House Judiciary Committee asks Justice Department to consider prosecuting Jack Smith - Relocation Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=6977\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"GOP chair of House Judiciary Committee asks Justice Department to consider prosecuting Jack Smith - Relocation Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, on Wednesday night asked the Justice Department to consider criminally charging special counsel Jack Smith, who previously prosecuted President Donald Trump, according to a letter sent to DOJ obtained by CNN.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=6977\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Relocation Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-23T04:33:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=6977#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=6977\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3d25fb966f660ab012820a9e0acc09be\"},\"headline\":\"GOP chair of House Judiciary Committee asks Justice Department to consider prosecuting Jack Smith\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-23T04:33:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=6977\"},\"wordCount\":1015,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=6977#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/c76c257afacf702304ab7440cc21d54d.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=6977#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=6977\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=6977\",\"name\":\"GOP chair of House Judiciary Committee asks Justice Department to consider prosecuting Jack Smith - 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