Jack Smith faces DOJ referral from House GOP for allegedly misleading Congress

It’s one step closer to a day Jack Smith predicted would come during his testimony before Congress six months ago. During the January 22 hearing. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., asked Smith, "Do you believe that President Trump's Department of Justice will find some way to indict you?" Smith responded, "I believe that they will do everything in their power to do that because they've been ordered to by the president." On Wednesday, the Department of Justice was handed a criminal referral from Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee. "There is cause for investigation to determine whether Mr. Smith knowingly made false statements to obstruct the Committee’s oversight. Under relevant federal statutes, a witness makes a false statement when the witness provides a half-truth or excludes information necessary to make statements accurate," wrote Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. He was referring to an exchange that took place during Smith's December 17 deposition behind closed doors, which the Committee has released video of. Smith is asked about his efforts to gather phone records from lawmakers who had communicated with Donald Trump as part of his investigation into Trump following the January 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol. His probe included the use of subpoenas to secretly obtain lawmakers’ toll records from Telecom companies. These are call logs showing dates and times of when the calls were made. Toll records to not include phone conversations or text messages. Smith was asked, "Did the records that you requested, the toll records from the members of Congress, include the content of text messages?" Jack Smith responded, "No." And while technically accurate, Jordan is accusing the former special counsel of quote "knowingly and willfully" making false statements during a deposition, because he did not mention that he had gained access to text messages from 44 lawmakers, in a different way getting them from the National Archives. In an interview with Fox News Wednesday, Rep. Jordan said, “We tell witnesses at the start of those depositions: you got to tell the whole truth; you can’t give partial answers. You can’t mislead in any way, and he definitely misled us." Upon hearing the news, President Trump posted on Truth Social, "Justice at Last?" Jack Smith’s lawyers insist he answered honestly. In a statement, Lanny Breuer and Peter Koski wrote, “During his testimony, Mr. Smith provided truthful, responsive answers and candidly discussed his work,” they added. “This referral reflects a chilling eagerness to weaponize the justice system by attacking a career, nonpartisan public servant who faithfully and fearlessly performed his duties by following the facts and the law.” READ MORE: https://13wham.com/news/nation-world/... _______________ Stay up to date with our social media: 13 WHAM on Facebook:   / 13wham   13 WHAM on Twitter:   / 13wham   13WHAM on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/13whamtv/?h... 13WHAM on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@13wham?lang=en 13 WHAM Daily Local News Digest:    • 13WHAM Local News Digest   For more information, visit https://13wham.com/ Have a news tip? Send it directly to us: Email us: [email protected] Call the Newsroom: (585) 334-8700 WHAM is a NY based station and a ABC Television affiliate owned and operated by Deerfield Media, Inc and receives certain services from an affiliation of Sinclair Broadcast Group. Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. is one of the largest and most diversified television broadcasting companies in the country today. #13WHAM #News #Rochester #NewYork