Rep. Jim Jordan refers Jack Smith for possible prosecution, saying he have have misled on Trump probe

By — Eric Tucker, Associated Press Eric Tucker, Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/rep-jim-jordan-refers-jack-smith-for-possible-prosecution-saying-he-have-have-misled-on-trump-probe Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Rep. Jim Jordan refers Jack Smith for possible prosecution, saying he have have misled on Trump probe Politics Jul 23, 2026 12:49 PM EDT WASHINGTON (AP) — A key Republican lawmaker says he believes that special counsel Jack Smith may have made false statements to Congress while testifying about his investigation of President Donald Trump and that the Justice Department should consider prosecuting him. Lawyers for Smith deny the allegation and say he testified truthfully. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, referred Smith to the Justice Department for possible prosecution related to closed-door testimony about whether he had obtained records of lawmakers while investigating Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss. READ MORE: Jack Smith's full deposition on the decision to indict Trump The referral, sent Wednesday, centers on a December 2025 exchange in which Smith was asked about subpoenas that prosecutors had issued for the toll records of some Republican lawmakers as part of the investigation. Toll records show the time, date, length of call and phone numbers involved but do not reveal the content of the communication. Educate your inbox Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else. "Did the toll records that you requested from the senators, did they include the content of the phone calls?" Smith was asked. "No," he said. He again answered no when asked whether the toll records he had requested included the content of text messages. READ MORE: Jan. 6 attack 'does not happen' without Trump, Jack Smith told Congress Jordan, in his referral, says that answer was misleading in light of newly released records from Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa showing that Smith had obtained the contents of 44 lawmakers' text messages in a separate subpoena to the National Archives and Records Administration that sought the communications of various Trump advisers and aides. "The responses provided by Mr. Smith gave the impression that neither Mr. Smith nor his team had access to the content of Members' privileged text messages. We now know this to be false," Jordan wrote. He said a false statement under the law can encompasses instances in which "the witness provides a half-truth or excludes information necessary to make statements accurate." READ MORE: Key moments from Jack Smith's House testimony In a letter to Jordan and Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Smith's lawyers called his answers "unimpeachably truthful" and noted that he was responding explicitly to questions about toll records,