Jim Jordan and his fellow House Republicans are moving forward with plans to counter-investigate special counsel Jack Smith, as the two criminal cases he filed against former President Donald Trump continue to advance, reported Courthouse News on Thursday.
"GOP lawmakers, looking to defend Trump from what they frame as a political ploy to keep him out of the White House, have long cast aspersions on a pair of Justice Department investigations into the former president," reported Benjamin Weiss. "Republicans have contended that President Biden is 'weaponizing' the federal law enforcement agency to go after his political rivals — a claim that has been rejected by some legal experts."
"In the GOP-controlled House Judiciary Committee, lawmakers have matched Smith’s probe with one of their own, hoping to demonstrate political malfeasance in the Justice Department," the report continued. "On Thursday, panel chair Jim Jordan stepped things up, telling the special counsel in a letter that he had 'significant concerns about your commitment to evenhanded justice.'"
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Republicans have been leveling similar threats since last year — and according to the report, they are prepared to issue subpoenas against Smith as part of the next phase of their investigation.
Jordan specifically points to the DOJ obtaining a search warrant for Trump's account on X, and a claim by a Trump associate's attorney that one of Smith's lawyers pressured him into negotiating a plea deal for his client by using the outcome of a judgeship application.
One of the cases brought by Smith accuses Trump of civil rights violations and conspiracy to defraud the United States, connected to the plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The other concerns the former president's retention of highly classified national defense information at his Mar-a-Lago country club in South Florida.
