House committee urges DOJ to charge former Trump prosecutor Jack Smith

The Republican seat of the House Judiciary Committee encouraged the Justice Department to look into criminally charging Jack Smith, alleging the erstwhile peculiar counsel who brought charges against President Trump lied to Congress — allegations the committee's apical Democrat denied.

The criminal referral Wednesday from Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio stems from last year's revelation that investigators obtained respective Republican lawmakers' telephone records arsenic portion of a probe into Mr. Trump's actions aft the 2020 election. In a deposition past year, Smith testified that his squad didn't person the contents of immoderate telephone calls oregon substance messages since the records sought were "toll records," which lone see details similar the numbers a idiosyncratic called.

But past week, the Justice Department told lawmakers that successful a abstracted subpoena for records held by the National Archives and Records Administration, Smith's squad obtained substance messages betwixt Trump-era White House staffers and dozens of members of Congress.

In airy of that information, Jordan accused Smith of making "materially mendacious statements" and said helium improperly "failed to disclose" the subpoena to the National Archives.

"All individuals person an work to comply with a duly authorized legislature inquiry. Mr. Smith, a erstwhile nationalist servant, is nary different," Jordan wrote. "Yet his grounds included intentionally mendacious statements designed to obstruct the Committee's oversight."

Jordan asked Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to analyse Smith. It is up to the Justice Department whether to prosecute transgression charges pursuing a transgression referral from Congress.

A Justice Department spokesperson confirmed to CBS News that it has received the referral missive and said it "will analyse each grounds of transgression conduct."

The House Judiciary Committee's apical Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, called the transgression referral "baseless and vindictive," predicting successful a connection that the lawsuit "will get laughed retired of court" if it's heard by a judge. He wrote that Smith was asked astir the subpoenas for GOP lawmakers' toll records, not the petition to the National Archives, and argued Smith answered the questions posed by the committee truthfully.

"The Republicans responsibility Mr. Smith for not speechmaking the minds of legislature investigators and for not volunteering accusation they didn't inquire for," Raskin wrote Wednesday night. "This is absurd. Mr. Smith whitethorn beryllium telegenic but helium is not telepathic."

CBS News has reached retired to representatives for Smith for comment.

This is simply a breaking story; it volition beryllium updated.

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