Smith had charged Trump in Washington over his challenging the results of the 2020 election.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) sent a subpoena to former special counsel Jack Smith for a deposition before the House panel, marking a development in the GOP investigation into the former prosecutor.
In a letter sent to Smith on Dec. 3, Jordan said Smith needs to appear before the House committee on Dec. 17 at 10 a.m. ET.
“Due to your service as Special Counsel, the Committee believes that you possess information that is vital to its oversight of this matter,” Jordan wrote in the letter to Smith and his attorneys, which was posted to his X account. “Based upon communications with your counsel, we understand that you are available to testify at a deposition” on the aforementioned date, it said.
Other details were not provided in the letter. Smith and his attorneys have yet to publicly respond.
Jordan’s subpoena also included a request for communications and documents connected to Smith’s investigation as special counsel, which involved charges being brought against President Donald Trump in two cases.
Smith had charged Trump in Washington over his challenging the results of the 2020 election, and charged him in Florida with illegally retaining classified documents. Trump had pleaded not guilty to the charges, while Smith ultimately dropped both cases.
Weeks before Trump took office a second time, Smith released a report in January that defended his special counsel investigation and the charges that were brought. The former special counsel argued that the charges were dropped due to a longstanding Department of Justice policy that discourages the prosecution of sitting presidents, but stressed that he believed in the merits of the charges.
“It is equally important for me to make clear that nobody within the Department of Justice ever sought to interfere with, or improperly influence, my prosecutorial decision making,” Smith said in the Jan. 7 letter that was sent to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The Department of Justice under the Biden administration also never sought to “improperly influence my decision as to whether to bring charges” against Trump, Smith said.
