Jack Smith didn’t invoke Fifth Amendment during 8 hours of testimony, GOP committee chairman says

By Casey Gannon, CNN

(CNN) — Former special counsel Jack Smith did not invoke his Fifth Amendment rights during eight hours of testimony Wednesday behind closed doors to the House Judiciary Committee, the panel’s chairman said.

“He did not take the Fifth like some of his deputies did,” Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, said on Fox News on Thursday.

Smith defended both of his investigations into then-former President Donald Trump, telling members that he charged Trump regardless of his political party affiliation. Smith and his attorneys have previously said that he wanted the opportunity to correct mischaracterizations about his investigations.

Previous interviewees have invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, Jordan said on Fox.

“You know we’ve deposed three of his deputies,” he said. “We got more coming in, and one of them took the Fifth 70-some times. We’ve actually referred that individual because we think he was obstructing our investigation.”

Some of Smith’s deputies who worked on his investigations have appeared before the committee already for closed door testimony. Two of his deputies, Jay Bratt and Thomas Windom, invoked their Fifth Amendment rights. The committee has already made a criminal referral to the Justice Department for Windom for declining to answer some questions.

It is unclear what the committee’s next steps are for Smith, but Jordan said the panel may hold a public hearing. The former special counsel previously asked to testify publicly, but Wednesday’s eight-hour appearance remained behind closed doors.

Jordan was also briefly asked on Fox if the committee plans to take any legal action against Smith following his testimony.

“I don’t want to get into that, and I can’t get into the details of the conversation,” Jordan said.

The panel this week also sent requests for interviews for four more of Smith’s deputies who worked on the investigations.

“We may look to have a public hearing where we bring Mr. Smith in in front of the committee, but we’re going to just keep moving through that,” Jordan said.

Some Democratic members of the committee, including ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, came and spoke to reporters halfway through Smith’s testimony. Democrats have continually said that Smith should be allowed to testify publicly.

“Every other special counsel has been able to come here and testify,” Raskin said. “Robert Mueller has been able to testify. Robert Hur has been able to testify. All the special counsels and independent counsels have come in.”

Raskin also said hours into the testimony that Smith had answered “every single question to the satisfaction of any reasonable minded person in that room.”

Jordan subpoenaed Smith to testify privately at the beginning of the month, citing his “partisan and politically motivated prosecutions,” against Trump.

Smith led two federal investigations into Trump. One was regarding his alleged mishandling of classified documents at his property in Mar-a-Lago, and the other on his alleged role in interfering with the 2020 presidential election.

Jordan also told Fox News this morning that his “overall belief” that Smith’s prosecutions were politically motivated did not change after Smith’s testimony.

“Nothing yesterday changed my overall belief that this was driven by politics, the timing of things, certain motions, and different things that were made,” Jordan said.

CNN has reached out to Smith’s attorney for comment.

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