WASHINGTON (AP) — A key Republican lawmaker says he believes that special counsel Jack Smith may have lied 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 on allegations he made false statements during closed-door testimony about whether he had obtained records of lawmakers while investigating Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss.
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FILE - Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, second from right, arrives before a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
FILE - Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, speaks before the House Judiciary Committee at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
FILE - House Judiciary Committee Chair Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, points with the gavel during a House Judiciary Committee hearing, June 4, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, FIle)
FILE - Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith takes an oath before the House Judiciary Committee at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
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.
“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.
Jordan, in his referral, says that 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.
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, which did not include the contents of any text messages.
A criminal referral to the Justice Department from Congress or any other party has no legal authority and does not compel prosecutors to act. But the department under the Trump administration has proved to be eager to investigate and in some cases prosecute foes of the president. Smith is certainly one such adversary, with Trump having called him “deranged” and urging his prosecution.
“During his testimony, Mr. Smith provided truthful, responsive answers and candidly discussed his work as Special Counsel,” wrote Smith's lawyers, Peter Koski and Lanny Breuer. “This referral reflects a chilling eagerness to weaponize the justice system by attacking a career, nonpartisan public servant who faithfully and fearlessly performed his duties by following the facts and the law.”
The Justice Department in a statement Wednesday night confirmed receipt of 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 his first term in the White House. Smith abandoned both prosecutions after Trump's election win in November 2024, citing longstanding Justice Department opinions that say sitting presidents cannot face federal indictment.
Smith resigned from the Justice Department in early 2025, 10 days before Trump was inaugurated again.
FILE - Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, second from right, arrives before a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
FILE - Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, speaks before the House Judiciary Committee at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
FILE - House Judiciary Committee Chair Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, points with the gavel during a House Judiciary Committee hearing, June 4, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, FIle)
FILE - Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith takes an oath before the House Judiciary Committee at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
