The former special counsel was referred to the Justice Department by several current GOP lawmakers.
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.
Along with Blackburn, FBI agents had obtained data on the phone use of Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), as well as Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), according to a document that was recently made public by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Oct. 6.
Smith wrote in his final report, released earlier this year, that toll records—or records from phones—had shown that Trump allegedly tried reaching out to two senators and told another individual to call members of Congress and suggested they try to delay the certification of the 2020 election results.
After Trump was elected last year, Smith ultimately dropped the charges and resigned in January, shortly before the president took office.
