Republicans ‘Looking at’ Criminal Charges Against Jack Smith for Lying Under Oath About His Prosecution of Trump

Congressman Jim Jordan’s declaration to Sean Hannity on Thursday that he is “looking at” referring Special Counsel Jack Smith to the Department of Justice for prosecution is the clearest sign yet that the erstwhile prosecutor is in danger of prosecution.Mr. Jordan, an Ohioan who chairs the House’s Judiciary Committee, told Mr. Hannity in respect of a criminal referral of Mr. Smith: “Do we need to refer him to the Justice Department, to Attorney General Blanche, for them to go ahead and move forward with prosecution? We’re looking at that as we speak.” Criminal charges would have to be approved by Mr. Blanche, the acting attorney general now wading through the confirmation process.A criminal referral from Mr. Jordan, though, would amount to a significant step toward the Department of Justice mounting a case against the former war crimes prosecutor at the Hague who twice sought to convict Mr. Trump. Scrutiny of Mr. Smith has been turbocharged this week by the disclosure from Senator Charles Grassley that the special counsel accessed text messages from 44 members of Congress — including four Democrats. Those messages were subpoenaed as part of Mr. Smith’s “Operation Arctic Frost,” his sprawling probe into Mr. Trump’s alleged culpability for the events of January 6. The investigation ultimately resulted in the handing up of four criminal charges against Mr. Trump for election interference in the wake of the 2020 election. Mr. Trump pleaded “not guilty,” and the charges were dropped after Mr. Trump secured reelection in 2024. The first disclosures related to “Arctic Frost,” which emerged early last year, concerned Mr. Smith’s access to telephone metadata of 14 Republican lawmakers — including eight senators. These “toll records” — approved by the senior judge of the federal District of Columbia district court, James Boasberg — were accompanied by non-disclosure orders, ensuring that the solons were never aware of Mr. Smith’s surveillance. No lawmaker was charged.In December Mr. Smith sat down for a deposition with lawmakers where he was asked “Did you seek a search warrant for the content of any text messages from Members?” He answered “I don’t recall.” When Mr. Smith was asked if he stopped short of searching texts, he responded “Correct.” Senator Josh Hawley declared during Mr. Blanche’s confirmation hearing that “Jack Smith said under oath that he didn’t seek the text messages of members of Congress, but in fact, we know that he did. So he lied, he violated the law, he violated the Constitution. This guy ought to be prosecuted.” Senator Eric Schmitt concurred, asserting that “Jack Smith should be subject to prosecution for lying to Congress.”Mr. Trump has called for Mr. Smith, who also sought to convict him for the retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, to be “prosecuted for his actions.” Mr. Smith, who has grown more outspoken in recent months, told Congress in January that he expected the attorneys at the DOJ “do everything in their power” to prosecute him “because they have been ordered to by the president.” He has accused Mr. Trump of having “corrupted” the DOJ. Mr. Smith insists that “I will not be intimidated.”Mr. Blanche, who if he passes through the Senate gauntlet would become America’s top law enforcement official on a permanent basis, has already launched a prosecution of another adversary of Mr. Trump, the former FBI director James Comey. That case, which centers on an Instagram post that the government insists threatened Mr. Trump’s life, is set to go to trial in September.The previous attorney general, Pam Bondi, prosecuted Mr. Comey for lying to Congress — as charge similar to that Mr. Smith could face — in connection to testimony he delivered in 2020 about investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. That case, though, was dismissed before it could go to trial when the prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, was found to be unlawfully appointed.Perjury cases like the kind Mr. Jordan is weighing for referral to the DOJ, though, are notoriously difficult to prosecute because to secure a conviction the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant intentionally lied about a material fact rather than simply made a mistake or misremembered.

Republicans ‘Looking at’ Criminal Charges Against Jack Smith for Lying Under Oath About His Prosecution of Trump

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