Rep. Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, referred former special counsel Jack Smith to the Justice Department for possible prosecution. Jordan alleges that Smith made false statements during closed-door testimony about records obtained while investigating President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss.
The referral, sent Wednesday, focuses on a December 2025 exchange about subpoenas issued for the toll records of some Republican lawmakers. Toll records show the time, date, length and phone numbers involved in a call, but they do not reveal the communication’s content. When asked whether the toll records included the content of phone calls, Smith answered no. He also answered no when asked whether the records included the content of text messages.
Jordan said those answers were misleading in light of records from Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa. According to the referral, the records show that Smith obtained the contents of 44 lawmakers’ text messages in a separate subpoena to the National Archives and Records Administration seeking communications from various Trump advisers and aides. Jordan wrote that Smith’s responses gave the impression that neither Smith nor his team had access to the contents of lawmakers’ privileged text messages.
Smith’s lawyers, Peter Koski and Lanny Breuer, rejected the allegation in a letter to Jordan and Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat. They said Smith was responding specifically to questions about toll records, which did not include the contents of text messages, and described his answers as “unimpeachably truthful.” “During his testimony, Mr. Smith provided truthful, responsive answers and candidly discussed his work as Special Counsel,” they wrote.
A criminal referral from Congress or another party has no legal authority and does not compel prosecutors to act. The Justice Department confirmed Wednesday night that it had received the referral and said it “will investigate all evidence of criminal conduct.”
Smith charged Trump with conspiring to undo the election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden and with hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, after Trump’s first term in the White House. Smith abandoned both prosecutions after Trump’s election win in November 2024, citing Justice Department opinions that sitting presidents cannot face federal indictment. He resigned from the department in early 2025, 10 days before Trump was inaugurated again.