(Ken Silva, Headline USA) House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, announced Thursday that his committee is investigating a senior aid to Special Counsel Jack Smith, the prosecutor targeting Donald Trump in multiple criminal proceedings.
Jordan said Smith’s aid, prosecutor Jay Bratt, allegedly tried to bribe defense attorney Stanley Woodward—who is representing a defendant indicted by Jack Smith—by implying that the Biden administration would look more favorably on Woodward’s candidacy for a judgeship if his client cooperated with Smith.
Jordan announced his investigation into Bratt in a letter to Smith.
“In November 2022, when your prosecutors were trying to secure the cooperation of Walt Nauta—who is alleged to have ‘move[d] boxes of documents’ at Mar-a-Lago—prosecutors, including Mr. Bratt, summoned Mr. Woodward to a meeting at the Department’s headquarters for ‘an urgent matter that they were reluctant to discuss over the phone,’” Jordan told Smith.
“When Mr. Woodward arrived, Mr. Bratt threatened him that Mr. Nauta should cooperate ‘because he had given potentially conflicting testimony that could result in a false statement,’” Jordan said.
According to Jordan, Bratt referenced Woodward’s pending application for a judgeship on the D.C. superior court—implying that the Biden administration would perceive Mr. Woodward’s application more favorably if Mr. Nauta was a cooperating witness against Trump.
Woodward subsequently informed the Justice Department that they “would have no further communications” unless the Justice Department charged Nauta or brokered an immunity deal, Jordan said.
Woodward has stated in court briefs that Mr. Bratt’s intimidation threats were merely “an attempt to diminish the Court’s authority over the proceedings in this case and to undermine attorney-client relationships without any basis specific to the facts of such representation.”
Jordan asked Smith to provide him with all documents and communications referring or relating to any appointment, meeting, or other visit by Woodward to the Justice Department, as well as any other communications referencing Woodward.
Smith has until Sept. 21 to answer Jordan.
The Judiciary Committee chairman’s latest investigation follows a probe he launched last month into whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis colluded with federal prosecutors for its indictment of Trump and 18 other defendants in that case.
Willis responded to Jordan Thursday by writing a letter accusing him of interfering with her prosecution.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
