Oct. 14 (UPI) — House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan on Tuesday demanded that former Special Counsel Jack Smith testify about his criminal probes of President Donald Trump that were ultimately dropped after the 2024 election.
Jordan, a Trump loyalist, made the demands in a letter to Smith, who had been appointed by the Biden-era Justice Department to oversee sprawling investigations into allegations Trump mishandled classified documents and tried to overturn the 2020 election.
The letter follows recent revelations that Smith’s team had obtained the cell phone data of nine Republican members of Congress, showing who they called in the days leading up to and immediately after the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Trump and his allies have accused Smith of leading politicized investigations into the president meant to damage him politically as he was campaigning to return to the White House in 2024.
“As the Committee continues its oversight, your testimony is necessary to understand the full extent to which the Biden-Harris Justice Department weaponized federal law enforcement,” Jordan wrote in his letter, accusing Smith of prosecutorial overreach and manipulating evidence.
Before resigning from his position in January just as Trump was about to be sworn into his second term, Smith issued a report to Congress stating that Trump would have been convicted of trying to overturn the 2020 election had he not been elected president in 2024. The Justice Department has a long-standing policy of not indicting sitting presidents.
Smith alleged that Trump had mounted a pressure campaign on state officials to throw out legitimate vote results in a scheme to have Trump certified as the winner of the 2020 election. As part of the effort, Trump directed a mob of his supporters to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress was certifying the election results, Smith alleged.
Jordan wrote that his committee has already deposed several people who worked on Smith’s team and obtained FBI documents showing the surveillance of U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, who later had his cell phone seized. However, Jordan wrote that former Senior Assistant Special Counsel Thomas Windom refused to answer key questions from the committee. Jordan also demanded that Smith turn over documents.
Smith currently does not face any charges.
After leaving his position, the Office of Special Counsel, which is designed to operate with some independence from the Justice Department, began investigating Smith in August.