Republicans have called for former Special Counsel Jack Smith to be referred to the Department of Justice for professional misconduct after obtaining lawmakers’ phone data.
Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), joined by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), and Dan Sullivan (R-AK), as well as Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi urging her to refer Smith to the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR).
“As part of Jack Smith’s weaponized witch hunt, the Biden DOJ issued subpoenas to several telecommunications companies in 2023 regarding our cell phone records, gaining access to the time, recipient, duration, and location of calls placed on our devices from January 4, 2021, to January 7, 2021,” the lawmakers wrote. “We have yet to learn of any legal predicate for the Biden Department of Justice issuing subpoenas to obtain these cell phone records.”
The letter notes that Smith’s actions “trampled on this separation of powers principle that underlies our system of government.”
Smith’s activities were rooted in “one simple reason: we are Republicans who support President Trump,” the letter reads.
“The conduct that Jack Smith and his team engaged in harkens back to a dark chapter in American history that we have not seen since the days of J. Edgar Hoover, and the completely corrupt investigation and prosecution by the FBI and DOJ of the late Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska,” they wrote. “We must ensure that we never return to these disgraceful eras.”
Similarly, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) sent a letter to Smith, demanding that he testify on the weaponized Department of Justice under the Biden administration.
The letter condemned the “abusive surveillance” of congressional members, activities that “reinforce the conclusion that your office conducted politically motivated investigations.”
