
Jack Smith speaks to the media about an indictment of Donald Trump on 1 August 2021. (Credit: J Scott Applewhite/AP)
Former special counsel Jack Smith was criminally referred to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Oct. 16 by multiple Republican lawmakers for alleged misconduct and possible disbarment.
A group of GOP lawmakers, led by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, asking her office to refer Smith, who was involved in two federal cases against then-former President Donald Trump, to the Office of Professional Responsibility for an investigation.
A statement from Blackburn’s office said Smith had “allegedly engaged in serious prosecutorial misconduct through the politically motivated Arctic Frost investigation and must face appropriate consequences, up to and including disbarment.”
It was revealed earlier this month that the FBI had obtained cell phone records of several sitting Republican senators.
“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,” Blackburn and several other Republican lawmakers wrote to Bondi on Thursday.
The senators added that they “have yet to learn of any legal predicate for the Biden Department of Justice issuing subpoenas to obtain these cell phone records,” the letter said.
(…) In their letter, the lawmakers accused Smith, who obtained records in the FBI’s Arctic Frost probe, of infringing on the rights of the elected officials and violating their respective rights to privacy.
“This is especially true given the invasion of our privacy was directly connected to our core legislative functions protected by the Speech or Debate Clause of our Constitution,” the Republican lawmakers wrote. “To the best we can tell, Smith’s team went on this fishing expedition for one simple reason: we are Republicans who support President Trump.” (Read more: The Epoch Times, 10/17/2025) (Archive)