House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan apparently thought he could get the better of former special counsel Jack Smith in a closed-door deposition late last year. The Ohio Republican thought wrong, and Democrats left the proceedings delighted by the former prosecutor’s performance.
About a month later, Jordan tried again, summoning Smith to Capitol Hill for a televised hearing, which also proved to be a failure for the GOP committee chairman and his allies.
Under the circumstances, the congressman probably ought to focus his energies elsewhere, but evidently Jordan’s crusade is still ongoing. MS NOW reported:
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan referred former special counsel Jack Smith to the Department of Justice on Wednesday for a potential criminal investigation, accusing Smith of intentionally making false statements to Congress last year.
In his letter to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Jordan alleged that there is “strong evidence” that Smith “made willfully and intentionally false statements” in a closed-door deposition Dec. 17.
It’s worth emphasizing that congressional referrals to the Justice Department like this are largely symbolic. Federal prosecutors make their own decisions about which cases to pursue, and while lawmakers are free to offer suggestions, congressional requests have no force of law. Indeed, lawmakers encouraging specific prosecutions often go overlooked by prosecutors.
But given the specific circumstances, it would be a mistake to discard Jordan’s latest gambit too quickly.
For one thing, it was just last week when acting Attorney General Todd Blanche suggested during his Senate confirmation hearing that he was considering a criminal investigation into Smith. For another, Donald Trump — who plays an active role in directing the DOJ and who faced multiple felony counts in cases brought by Smith — has already publicly endorsed Jordan’s referral, signaling to prosecutors that this is apparently a presidential priority.
That said, Smith’s critics should probably temper their expectations. At the heart of Jordan’s case is the idea that the former special counsel committed perjury, which clearly did not happen.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley last week disclosed that Smith’s investigative team obtained text messages from dozens of members of Congress during its investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. According to several GOP members, Smith said the opposite during his closed-door deposition in December, when he was asked whether the “toll records” he obtained from members of Congress included the content of text messages. Smith testified, “No.”
But as a CNN report explained, the disclosed text messages didn’t come from the toll records obtained from members of Congress:
Instead, as Grassley notes, they came from subpoenaing the text messages of White House officials from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). That data happened to include the content of text messages from members of Congress, but it was obtained in a different manner, more incidentally.
In other words, that batch of evidence is different from what Smith was asked about.
It’s why Smith’s attorneys called the referral “meritless” and based on a “spurious claim.” It’s also why Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, denounced the referral, saying in a statement that Republicans “have embarrassed themselves again in this investigation.”
The Maryland Democrat added, “This 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. It is meant to please their Fox News viewership. It is meant to whitewash their own participation in a scheme to overthrow our elections. And above all, it is meant to create a distraction so Republicans on Senate Judiciary can feel just a little more comfortable confirming the architect of the Epstein cover-up and lawless Trump slush fund and super pardon, Todd Blanche, to the post of Attorney General. We will not fall for this ludicrous distraction. Neither will the American people.”
As for the former special counsel, earlier this month, Smith sat down with MS NOW’s Nicolle Wallace, who asked the former prosecutor if he’s concerned about being indicted. Smith replied that he’s not focused on the possibility of facing charges.
“I honestly do not spend a lot of time thinking about the things he says about me and his threats about me,” he said. “I’m real focused on the people who I worked with, looking out for them. I’m real focused on how the Justice Department is going to be better going forward, things like that.”
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