Here’s What Jim Jordan And Congressional Republicans Need To Ask Jack Smith On Thursday
Margot Cleveland
Former Special Counsel Jack Smith is set to testify publicly before the House Judiciary Committee this Thursday. The former special counsel’s appearance before the House Judiciary Committee follows the closed-door interview Smith sat for last month as part of Chair Jim Jordan’s investigation into the Biden Administration’s weaponization of the Justice Department. A transcript of that deposition exposed several disturbing details concerning the targeting of Donald Trump, but also revealed how much remains hidden from the public.
While it is unlikely the House Judiciary Committee’s January 22, 2026 hearing will fully — or even mostly — address the totality of the weaponization of the justice department, or Smith’s complicity in that abuse of power, posing the following questions will provide a start.
First, Push Smith On His Previous MisrepresentationsBefore delving into new matters, the House Judiciary Committee should begin by confronting Smith with the inaccuracies in his prior closed-door testimony. The most galling misrepresentation came when Smith told Democrats the special counsel’s office “had evidence” “where President Trump was asking local officials to find 11,000 votes.”
Contrary to Smith’s claim, Trump did not ask election officials “to find” him 11,000 votes. That claim, which relates to a telephone conversation Trump and his election lawyers had with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, has been debunked for years based on a transcript of the January 2, 2021 call.
As I explained following Smith’s December 17, 2025 testimony, the transcript of Trump and his legal team’s call with Secretary Raffensperger “reveal[ed] that during that call Trump and his lawyers catalogued numerous categories of illegal votes of which they had concrete evidence, falling in some 25 categories.” Trump’s lawyer then “explained to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, they had filed a petition in court challenging the election outcome, but ‘the court is not acting on our petition. They haven’t even assigned a judge.’” Because the state court refused to act on Trump’s petition, his election lawyers asked the secretary of state’s office to investigate the problems.
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https://thefederalist.com/2026/01/21/heres-what-jim-jordan-and-congressional-republicans-need-to-ask-jack-smith-on-thursday/
