The former official, Thomas Windom, had failed to provide answers to a House Republican panel in September, the letter says.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-La.) recommended to the Department of Justice (DOJ) that a member of former special counsel Jack Smith’s team be prosecuted for obstruction of justice for not answering the committee’s questions.
In a letter released by the Republican-controlled committee on Wednesday, Jordan cited former DOJ attorney Thomas Windom.
“Congress cannot perform its oversight function if witnesses who appear before its committees corruptly refuse to provide information that the law requires them to furnish,” Jordan said in the letter, which was submitted to Attorney General Pam Bondi. “The obstruction of a committee investigation undermines Congress’s core constitutional oversight obligations.”
Jordan also noted that Windom, as a former senior official under Smith, has “unique” and “firsthand” knowledge about the former special counsel’s investigation of President Donald Trump.
Even though the DOJ provided Windom with authorization to speak on the subject matter, he still “declined to answer questions during his deposition about topics necessary and relevant to the Committee’s inquiry,” according to the letter.
Windom would not answer questions during a Sept. 30 House deposition based on his assertion that the DOJ did not provide him with the authorization to testify on the topic, Jordan added.
“Windom declined to answer multiple questions during this transcribed interview on the inaccurate basis that DOJ had not authorized testimony about those topics,” the chairman added in the letter.
“Specifically, Windom’s counsel began the deposition by asserting numerous blanket objections to the Committee’s ability to depose Windom, including an unspecified First Amendment privilege, attorney-client privilege, a misguided belief that the Committee had no legitimate legislative purpose for the inquiry, and his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.”
A transcript that was provided in the letter to the DOJ shows that Windom’s attorney, Preston Burton, said that the committee was not carrying out a legitimate inquiry into the probe and had no oversight.
House Judiciary Republicans have “engaged in an unserious, performative exercise, convened for political theater,” he said in the hearing, according to the transcript. “Majority staff have demonstrated no respect for, nor understanding of, my client’s obligation to follow the laws, such as the grand secrecy rules—grand jury secrecy rules, violations of which carry criminal sanctions.”
