(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Justice Department will likely drop its two pending federal cases against President-elect Donald Trump, due to an internal policy not to prosecute sitting presidents.
But that’s not good enough for the House Judiciary Committee, which on Friday signalled its intent to investigate Special Prosecutor Jack Smith’s dubious cases against Trump.
“With President Trump’s decisive victory this week, we are concerned that the Office of Special Counsel may attempt to purge relevant records, communications, and documents responsive to our numerous requests for information. The Office of Special Counsel is not immune from transparency or above accountability for its actions,” Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said in a letter to Smith.
Jack Smith:
Preserve your records. pic.twitter.com/Toazp1EATk
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) November 8, 2024
Jordan and Rep. Barry Loudermilk, the chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight, reiterated the requests they’ve been making for the last two years for various DOJ documents about the Trump prosecutions. They also told Smith to preserve all his records about the same.
“You should construe this preservation notice as an instruction to take all reasonable steps to prevent the destruction or alteration, whether intentionally or negligently, of all documents, communications, and other information, including electronic information and metadata, that are or may be responsive to this congressional inquiry,” they said.
“This instruction includes all electronic messages sent using official and personal accounts or devices, including records created using text messages, phone-based message applications, or encryption software.”
Trump has pledged to fire Smith “within 2 seconds” of taking office. A Supreme Court ruling this summer that prohibited presidents from being prosecuted for official acts already complicated the two cases, one involving the president-elect’s storage of documents and another concerning his actions on Jan. 6, 2021.
Investigative reporter Julie Kelly said Smith needs to be held accountable for his dubious actions—specifically the way he handled the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case against Trump.
“The special counsel’s office was forced to disclose instances of tampering with and perhaps destroying evidence, intimidating witnesses, withholding discovery, and misleading the court,” Kelly noted in a Thursday Substack article.
Jack Smith and the rest of the DOJ/FBI right now: https://t.co/1Uc4Sg9Ms6 pic.twitter.com/wMX3cOFbKV
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) November 6, 2024
“Court proceedings also revealed egregious misconduct related to the unprecedented armed raid of Mar-a-Lago; agents working out of the Washington and Miami FBI field offices breached the broad terms of the search warrant by ransacking the bedrooms of Melania and Barron Trump,” she said.
“The FBI’s plan included the bureau’s use of lethal force policy, underscoring the excessiveness of the raid, which was altogether unnecessary considering Trump and his lawyers had been cooperating with authorities for months.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
