'They're trying to set him up': Legal expert warns Jack Smith to avoid GOP 'perjury trap'

Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman thinks that Republicans are trying to catch former special counsel Jack Smith in a perjury trap so they can arrest him for investigating President Donald Trump.

Speaking to MSNBC on Monday morning, Akerman, a former assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, said that it's clear Smith is refusing to speak with Congress unless the testimony is public.

A recent ABC News report revealed that Smith had notes taken by former Vice President Mike Pence "hastily scribbled" on a "day planner" that he intended to use as evidence if the Jan. 6 case had gone to trial.

"It would have been a real 'Perry Mason' moment," Akerman said of the report, a reference to the 1950s TV legal drama.

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Host Ana Cabrera pivoted to Smith, asking if the administration would weaponize the Justice Department to go after the former special counsel next.

"There's not much to stop it," Akerman said, but added that Smith is doing everything correctly to protect himself.

Akerman explained that Smith sent a letter to the DOJ asking what he could testify to "so that he doesn't violate grand jury secrecy and other matters that are still confidential."

He continued, saying that Smith is "being very careful about it."

"What they're trying to do is set him up for a perjury crime," Akerman said. "If they put him behind closed doors, [and] ask him a bunch of questions, they'll do what they did to Jim Comey," referring to the former FBI director who is now under indictment for allegedly lying to Congress.

"They pick and choose certain selective pieces of testimony and claim it's perjurious," Akerman said. "That's what they're looking to do, so that's why Jack Smith is very smart in asking that it all be done in public."