House Oversight Committee tells Smith it’s “concerned your unprecedented investigation and fervent prosecution of President Trump is not about any true commitment to equal justice under the law, but an (increasingly contrived) attempt to use the criminal justice system to defame the former president before the 2024 Presidential election.”
House Republicans have demanded all the communications between Special Counsel Jack Smith and the Department of Justice over their decision to prosecute former President Donald Trump.
In a letter to Smith sent on Friday, the House Oversight Committee expressed “concern” that the he and the DOJ were weaponizing their law enforcement duties to persecute Trump ahead of the 2024 election.
“The Committee is concerned your unprecedented investigation and fervent prosecution of President Trump is not about any true commitment to equal justice under the law, but an (increasingly contrived) attempt to use the criminal justice system to defame the former president before the 2024 Presidential election,” the lawmakers wrote.
The DOJ answers to Congress. It’s time Jack Smith is reminded of that. Jack Smith has until December 15th to respond. I am personally working on this. pic.twitter.com/kHmUjweTCY
— Anna Paulina Luna (@realannapaulina) December 1, 2023
The Committee noted that the Supreme Court had already ruled against criminal statutes brought forward against public officials that are now being used against Trump.
“The Supreme Court has consistently overturned criminal convictions against public officials and private parties based upon broad theories of prosecution brought under general criminal statutes. Yet you have used just such a theory in your prosecution of President Trump, relying on a general conspiracy statute to allege a conspiracy to defraud the United States. The Supreme Court has held past attempts to prosecute under such a theory exceeded the reach of the statutes on which they were based, including overly expansive definitions of ‘official acts.’”
“The Committee is interested to learn whether the Department considered the Supreme Court’s parameters in weighing the prosecution of former President Trump and any analysis developed in determining that the use of the general conspiracy statute conformed to the precepts articulated in these cases,” the lawmakers added.
The Committee letter, signed by Reps. James Comer (Ky.), Jim Jordan (Ohio), and Anna Paulina Luna (Fla.), then asked Smith for the following by December 15:
1. All documents and communications concerning your authority to empanel a grand jury in the United States District Courts for the District of Columbia and the Southern District of Florida.
2. All documents and communications concerning your authority to offer immunity, pursuant to 18 U.S. Code § 6002, to individuals testifying before either grand jury.
3. All documents and communications concerning any oversight by the Department of Justice regarding any of these topics, specifically including, but not limited to, all documents and communications exchanged between your office and the Department concerning your decision to return an indictment of President Trump.
Smith indicted Trump on 37 federal counts in Miami in June over his retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
He then issued a superseding indictment of 3 additional charges against Trump in August in that case.
Smith then hit Trump with another indictment in September related to his January 6 case, alleging the former president committed conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruct an official proceeding.
