House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan has filed a criminal referral against former special counsel Jack Smith, accusing him of making intentionally false statements before Congress.
Jordan sent the referral in a letter to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, arguing that Smith misled lawmakers about whether he obtained or reviewed members’ text messages during his investigations into President Donald Trump.
“All individuals have an obligation to comply with a duly authorized congressional inquiry,” Jordan wrote, adding that Smith’s “testimony included intentionally false statements designed to obstruct the Committee’s oversight.”
Jordan continued that Smith’s “conduct can only be understood as an effort to thwart the Committee’s inquiry by intentionally making false statements and representations before Congress.”
The referral specifically targets statements Smith made during a December deposition, where Jordan argues Smith gave the false impression that neither he nor his team had accessed privileged text messages from members of Congress.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley released documents last week showing Smith’s team read the text messages of 44 members of Congress from both parties, as well as White House staff, during the investigation.
Targeted lawmakers included Jordan, Grassley, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sen. Susan Collins, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, and Sen. Cory Booker, spanning both Republican and Democratic members.
Trump administration officials whose messages were accessed included former Vice President Mike Pence, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Ivanka Trump.
Grassley’s office also found that Smith’s team appeared to violate investigative protocols by accessing text messages that had not been reviewed by a filter team, a safeguard designed to protect privileged communications.
When asked by congressional investigators whether he examined the contents of lawmakers’ text messages, Smith answered “no,” telling the committee his team only sought telephone toll records.
Smith testified in December that “toll records were sought for historical telephone routing information, collected after calls had taken place, identifying the incoming and outgoing call numbers, the time of the calls and their duration,” and that “toll records do not include the content of calls.”
Smith has denied any wrongdoing, but Republicans have continued to press allegations that he weaponized the Justice Department and violated constitutional privacy protections during his probes into the 2020 election and Trump’s handling of classified documents.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, rejected the referral as a deliberate distortion, saying, “The Republicans fault Mr. Smith for not reading the minds of congressional investigators and for not volunteering information they didn’t ask for.”
Raskin added, “This is absurd. Mr. Smith may be telegenic but he is not telepathic,” offering a sharp rebuke of his Republican colleagues’ conduct in the matter.
The Justice Department confirmed receipt of the referral in a statement, saying it “will investigate all evidence of criminal conduct,” signaling the matter could advance toward a formal prosecutorial review.
