Jack Smith may have thought he was untouchable when he led the Biden administration's legal crusade against Donald Trump, but Republican lawmakers are now making it clear that his alleged abuses won't go unanswered. On Friday, Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, joined by a coalition of Republican senators and one congressman, sent a blistering letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi referring the former special counsel to the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility and two state bar associations for investigation. The charge? Professional misconduct that is serious enough to warrant potential disbarment.
“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,” the letter read. “We have yet to learn of any legal predicate for the Biden Department of Justice issuing subpoenas to obtain these cell phone records.”
The referral is connected to a previous revelation that Jack Smith spied on Republican members of Congress covering the period between Jan. 4 and Jan. 7, 2021. This wasn't just casual snooping. The so-called toll analysis included call duration, recipient information, and location data from their personal devices. And none of these lawmakers were informed or gave their consent.
Joining Blackburn in signing the referral were Sens. Lindsey Graham, Tommy Tuberville, Dan Sullivan, Ron Johnson, Bill Hagerty, Josh Hawley, and Cynthia Lummis, along with Rep. Mike Kelly. Together, they are demanding that Smith face an investigation by the DOJ and discipline from the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility and the New York Attorney Grievance Committee, the two states where he holds law licenses.
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The lawmakers contend that Smith violated the Speech or Debate Clause, a fundamental protection designed to shield legislative independence from executive branch overreach. They argue there was no legitimate legal justification or criminal predicate for obtaining their call records. It was, in their view, a fishing expedition dressed up as an investigation.
In concluding the missive, the federally scrutinized senators suggested that Smith be referred for disbarment to the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility and the New York Attorney Grievance Committee, since he is licensed to practice law in both states.
“The conduct that Jack Smith and his team engaged in harkens back to a dark chapter in American history that we have not seen since the days of J. Edgar Hoover, and the completely corrupt investigation and prosecution by the FBI and DOJ of the late Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska,” they wrote. “We must ensure that we never return to these disgraceful eras.”
The materials Smith allegedly gathered came from an FBI operation called Arctic Frost, which began in April 2022. Those records were later folded into Smith's election interference case against Trump, which resulted in the 2023 indictment. For Republicans, this timeline reveals a troubling pattern of using federal law enforcement apparatus as a political weapon.
Republicans compared Smith’s actions to the abuses of power not seen since the days of J. Edgar Hoover. Sen. Chuck Grassley went further, suggesting the phone record seizures were arguably worse than Watergate.
Smith now faces the most serious ethics challenge of his career. The referral could have consequences across multiple jurisdictions and raises questions about whether special counsels can be held accountable when their prosecutorial zeal crosses constitutional lines. For Republicans, this is about more than one man. It's about drawing a line in the sand and making sure nobody in government thinks they're above the law.
Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is still ongoing, and polls are now showing Americans are increasingly blaming the Democrats for this mess, but we can’t let them spin their way out of it.
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