Jack Smith swore to Congress he never read a single text message from any member of Congress.
Now DOJ records prove his team read texts from 44 of them.
Jim Jordan just sent that lie straight to the Justice Department.
What Smith Said Under Oath
On December 17, 2025, Smith sat before the House Judiciary Committee for eight hours.
Under oath.
A committee lawyer asked him directly: did you seek a search warrant for the content of any text messages from members of Congress?
Smith said, "No, I don't recall."
Asked whether investigators had sought only toll records, he answered, "Correct."
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He even lectured the committee on what toll records are.
"Toll records were sought for historical telephone routing information," he testified, spelling it out like he was explaining basic plumbing to someone slowly. "Toll records do not include the content of calls."
He said it. Under oath. On the record.
What the Documents Actually Show
Seven months later, the Trump Justice Department handed the Senate Judiciary Committee records that blew that story apart.
Smith's team hadn't just grabbed phone metadata.
They had accessed the actual content of text messages belonging to 44 members of Congress – mostly Republicans – sent to White House officials during Trump's first term.
The texts came from the National Archives, subpoenaed in August 2023.
Smith's investigators got them.
They read them.
And they never once told Congress that this trove existed.
Sen. Chuck Grassley released the findings and called Smith out by name.
"December 2025: Jack Smith swore under oath that he didn't spy on text messages belonging to members of Congress," Grassley said. "Today: New evidence confirms he spied on dozens of members of Congress."
Elise Stefanik said Smith's team "unlawfully and unconstitutionally accessed my private text messages, along with 43 other Members of Congress, in clear violation of the Constitution."
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This isn't a paperwork dispute.
The Speech or Debate Clause – written into the Constitution in Article I, Section 6 – is an absolute bar against the executive branch reaching into Congress's legislative communications.
The Founders put it there for exactly this reason: to stop prosecutors from using lawmakers' private deliberations as weapons.
Smith didn't just violate a rule.
He may have shredded a 235-year-old constitutional protection.
He Then Tried to Cover His Tracks
After his deposition, Smith submitted an errata sheet – a document allowing him to correct errors in sworn testimony.
He used it to sharpen his denials.
He changed his answer on whether any lawmaker's phone had been seized from "I don't know" to a definitive "I don't – no."
He also struck the word "text" from a reference to "text records" that could have proven certain January 6 calls occurred – leaving only "records."
He didn't correct a mistake.
He tightened the story.
That's not a memory lapse.
That's a man who knew exactly what he was doing.
What Jordan Just Did About It
Jim Jordan's letter went to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Wednesday.
The referral invokes 18 U.S.C. § 1001 – the federal statute making it a crime to knowingly and willfully make false statements before Congress. Jordan said he has "strong evidence" that Smith's December testimony contained false statements that "contradict new documents obtained by the committee from the Department of Justice."
Smith's lawyers fired back fast, calling the referral "based on a spurious claim" and insisting their client did not lie.
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They argued he only answered the questions asked – he didn't proactively volunteer the National Archives texts because the committee never asked about them.
Think about that defense for a second.
Smith sat in front of Congress for eight hours.
His team had accessed private text messages from 44 elected representatives of the United States.
He let the committee walk away believing he had grabbed only basic phone logs.
And his lawyers' answer is: no one asked the exact right question.
That's not a defense.
That's a confession that he concealed.
Blanche has already signaled the DOJ takes this seriously.
When Sen. Josh Hawley pressed him last week on whether Smith's testimony warranted investigation, Blanche said, "We take testimony in front of this body very seriously, yes."
The referral is in.
The evidence is documented.
And the man who spent three years trying to put Donald Trump in prison is now the one facing a federal criminal referral for lying to Congress.
Sources:
- Jim Jordan, "Letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche," House Judiciary Committee, July 22, 2026.
- Chad Pergram, "Jack Smith probe swept texts of 44 Congress members, bypassing review," Fox News, July 2026.
- "New Records Fuel Calls for Federal Probe Into Jack Smith's Testimony on Lawmakers' Text Messages," YourNews, July 17, 2026.
- "Jack Smith team reviewed contents of texts involving 44 members of Congress, DOJ records show," Washington Examiner, July 2026.
- Chuck Grassley, Senate Judiciary Committee Statement, July 2026.
