{"id":6622,"date":"2025-10-17T16:54:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T16:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/6622\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T16:54:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T16:54:15","slug":"ex-trump-special-counsel-jack-smith-referred-to-doj-for-probe-on-professional-misconduct-potential-state-disbarment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/6622\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Trump special counsel Jack Smith referred to DOJ for probe on professional misconduct, potential state disbarment"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Former special counsel Jack Smith<\/a> was referred to the Department of Justice office that deals with professional misconduct \u2014 as well as for disbarment by two state panels \u2014 following \u201cdeeply disturbing revelations\u201d that he surreptitiously obtained congressional Republicans\u2019 call logs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A Friday letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi led by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) accused former President Joe Biden\u2019s DOJ of having \u201cspied on duly elected members of Congress\u201d and demanding that Smith be investigated by the department\u2019s Office of Professional Responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs part of Jack Smith\u2019s weaponized witch hunt, the Biden DOJ issued subpoenas to several telecommunications companies in 2023 regarding our cell phone records, gaining access to the time, recipient, duration, and location of calls placed on our devices from January 4, 2021, to January 7, 2021,\u201d Blackburn and the other lawmakers said.<\/p>\n

Former special counsel Jack Smith was referred for investigation to the office in the Department of Justice that deals with professional misconduct. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have yet to learn of any legal predicate for the Biden Department of Justice issuing subpoenas to obtain these cell phone records,\u201d added the GOP lawmakers, including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) as well as Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.).<\/p>\n

The elected officials also accused Smith \u2014 whose eventual federal cases against President Trump received materials from the FBI\u2019s \u201cArctic Frost\u201d<\/a> probe \u2014 of having infringed on the constitutional rights of elected officials and \u201ctrampled on this separation of powers principle that underlies our system of government.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is especially true given the invasion of our privacy was directly connected to our core legislative functions protected by the Speech or Debate Clause of our Constitution,\u201d the Republicans went on. \u201cTo the best we can tell, Smith\u2019s team went on this fishing expedition for one simple reason: we are Republicans who support President Trump.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have yet to learn of any legal predicate for the Biden Department of Justice issuing subpoenas to obtain these cell phone records,\u201d wrote five of the Republicans whose phone logs were seized. AP<\/p>\n

In concluding the missive, the federally scrutinized senators suggested that Smith be referred for disbarment to the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility and the New York Attorney Grievance Committee, since he is licensed to practice law in both states.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conduct that Jack Smith and his team engaged in harkens back to a dark chapter in American history that we have not seen since the days of J. Edgar Hoover, and the completely corrupt investigation and prosecution by the FBI and DOJ of the late Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska<\/a>,\u201d they wrote. \u201cWe must ensure that we never return to these disgraceful eras.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Smith got so-called \u201ctoll analysis,\u201d or phone metadata that would reveal who was contacted, from nine Republicans in his 2020 election interference prosecution of Trump<\/a>. Five of the affected lawmakers signed onto the professional misconduct letter.<\/p>\n

The letter, led by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday accused former President Joe Biden\u2019s DOJ of having \u201cspied on duly elected members of Congress.\u201d REUTERS<\/p>\n

In adition to Blackburn, the other four were Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.).<\/p>\n

Blackburn previously sent letters to Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile asking why the phone carriers let \u201cthis invasion of privacy \u2026 occur wholly unchallenged.\u201d<\/p>\n

The FBI investigation began in April 2022 and its materials were handed over to Smith in November that year for what later became his election interference case, which indicted Trump on four counts in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee and released the information on the phone records\u2019 seizure earlier this month, claimed the investigative move was \u201carguably worse than Watergate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019ve uncovered today is disturbing and outrageous political conduct by the Biden FBI,\u201d he said. \u201cThe FBI\u2019s actions were an unconstitutional breach, and Attorney General Bondi and [FBI] Director [Kash] Patel need to hold accountable those involved in this serious wrongdoing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith got so-called \u201ctoll analysis,\u201d or phone metadata that would reveal who was contacted, for his 2020 election meddling prosecution of President Trump. Ron Sachs\/CNP \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

The Iowa Republican has also released files showing 92 GOP-connected groups or people \u2014 including the late Turning Point USA founder and conservative icon Charlie Kirk \u2014 were\u00a0targeted in the FBI\u2019s Arctic Frost probe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In addition, records disclosed by Patel\u2019s FBI show Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) was\u00a0tailed by agents<\/a> at his congressional office in Washington, DC, and his district residence \u2014 and later had his phone seized as part of the probe.<\/p>\n

Smith and reps for the DOJ\u2019s Office of Professional Responsibility did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Former special counsel Jack Smith was referred to the Department of Justice office that deals with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5969,383,153,68,5970,4393,9,11,10,87,58],"class_list":["post-6622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-2020-presidential-election","tag-department-of-justice","tag-donald-trump","tag-exclusive","tag-fbi","tag-misconduct","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-politics","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}