Exclusive: House Judiciary Committee expands Jack Smith probe
By Annie Grayer, CNN
(CNN) — The House Judiciary Committee is demanding interviews with four current and former Department of Justice officials who were involved in subpoenaing phone records for several members of Congress around the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack, the day before Republicans interview former special counsel Jack Smith.
The interview requests to Smith’s top deputies Raymond Hulser, Kenneth Polite, Timothy Duree, and Molly Gaston for December 30 mark an expansion of the Republican-led investigation into the federal probes of President Donald Trump in between his two terms in office. The escalation is part of the broader push by Trump and his allies to claim that the Biden administration was weaponized against conservatives.
“We believe you possess information vital to our constitutional oversight responsibilities,” House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan wrote in letters obtained exclusively by CNN.
CNN has reached out to representatives of the four individuals for comment.
In emails the DOJ shared with Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley, Gaston wrote to a small group on May 17, 2023, “I’m writing to consult with PIN on some narrowly-tailored subpoenas that we plan to issue for toll records belonging to Members of Congress.”
“Our investigation suggests that on or about January 6, 2021, Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani reached out to these Members to ask or pressure them to delay the certification of the electoral college vote—including, in some cases, on the night of January 6, in the hour before Congress resumed the Joint Session after the attack on the Capitol,” Gaston wrote in her email justifying the subpoenas, which would be from January 4, 2021 to January 7, 2021.
Hulser responded at various points in Gaston’s email chain including, “cleared. Thanks for doing this.”
Senate Republicans announced in October that the FBI, as part of Smith’s January 6 investigation, used court orders in 2023 to obtain the phone records of nine GOP lawmakers. The lawmakers were: Sens. Lindsey Graham, Bill Hagerty, Josh Hawley, Dan Sullivan, Tommy Tuberville, Ron Johnson, Cynthia Lummis and Marsha Blackburn, as well as Rep. Mike Kelly.
It’s unclear what exactly investigators were seeking to determine by pulling the phone records, and there’s no indication that these senators were targets of Smith’s investigation. The phone records were obtained through a grand jury, a lawful process for federal investigators to obtain such documents. The lawmakers said that FBI Director Kash Patel turned over information on the subpoenas which sought the toll records, which show the phone numbers called and time and duration of calls but not content.
Jordan, who is leading this investigation and will be squaring off with Smith on Wednesday during a closed-door interview, revealed in November that his phone records over a two-year period had also been obtained as part of Smith’s probe.
Smith will privately testify on Capitol Hill about his historic prosecutions of Trump over efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss and alleged mishandling of classified documents. The former special counsel dropped both cases in November 2024, shortly after Trump was elected, but has said dropping the charges does not exonerate Trump.
The deposition, the result of months of deliberation, was not Smith’s first choice. The former special counsel wanted to testify publicly. Smith has said he wanted to testify “in open hearings” because of “the many mischaracterizations” around his investigations.
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have been pushing Trump’s DOJ to release part two of Smith’s final report into alleged mishandling of classified documents, which still remains under seal.
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