House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan referred former Special Counsel Jack Smith to the Department of Justice on July 22, 2026, accusing him of making willfully false statements to Congress about accessing lawmakers’ text messages during his investigations into President Donald Trump.
Jordan’s referral centers on Smith’s December 17, 2025, deposition before the House Judiciary Committee. According to Jordan’s letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Smith testified that his team “did not obtain or review” the content of members’ privileged text messages. “We now know this to be false,” Jordan wrote.
The accusation stems from newly released records by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley showing that Smith’s team obtained and reviewed text messages from 44 members of Congress—both Republican and Democratic—during the Trump investigations. Targeted lawmakers included Jordan himself, Grassley, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, and Sen. Cory Booker, along with White House officials including former Vice President Mike Pence and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
When asked during his deposition whether his team looked at “the content of text messages,” Smith answered, “No.” He told the committee that his team only sought telephone toll records, which he described as “historical telephone routing information” that did not include message content. Fox News reported that Grassley’s office also found Smith’s team appeared to violate investigative protocols by accessing texts that had not been reviewed by a “filter team”—a safeguard designed to prevent investigators from accessing privileged information.
In his letter, Jordan argued that Smith’s responses “gave the impression that neither Mr. Smith nor his team had access to the content of members’ privileged text messages.” Jordan wrote that Smith’s conduct “can only be understood as an effort to thwart the Committee’s inquiry by intentionally making false statements and representations before Congress.”
Democrats disputed the referral sharply. Ranking Member Jamie Raskin of the House Judiciary Committee stated that Smith’s testimony was truthful and that Republicans failed to ask the right questions during the deposition. “When asked if his subpoena for Members’ toll records sought the content of either Member’s phone calls or messages, he truthfully replied that they did not,” Raskin said in a statement. Raskin argued that Smith could not have lied because Republicans never asked whether his team had reviewed text message content. “Jack Smith could not have lied because Republican Members never even asked the question their theory is based on,” Raskin wrote.
Raskin also noted that the text messages accessed by Smith’s team may have been presidential records preserved at the National Archives under the Presidential Records Act, which would explain their presence in executive branch records that Smith’s team subpoenaed. He characterized the referral as politically motivated, saying it was “meant to harass Jack Smith” and “meant to create a distraction.”
The referral is the latest escalation in Republican scrutiny of Smith’s investigations. In November 2025, Jordan also referred Thomas Windom, a senior assistant special counsel under Smith, to the Justice Department. Smith has denied wrongdoing and previously testified that his investigation into Trump met the standard of proof required for prosecution.
Sources
- House Judiciary Committee Republicans — official press release confirming Jordan’s referral of Smith to the DOJ on July 22, 2026
- Fox News — detailed reporting on the referral, Smith’s December testimony, and Grassley’s findings on text message access
- The Hill — coverage of Jordan’s criminal referral and accusations that Smith lied to Congress
- U.S. House Judiciary Committee Democrats — Ranking Member Raskin’s statement disputing the referral and defending Smith’s testimony
