House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said evidence seized by the FBI during the raid on former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s classified records case was “not tampered with or We are investigating whether it was manipulated.
Jordan, R-Ohio, sent a letter to the Office of Professional Responsibility this week after Smith acknowledged that the documents seized were no longer in their original order or sequence.
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Smith and federal prosecutors acknowledged in a court filing Friday that “there are several boxes where the order of the items within the box is not the same as the associated scan.” Prosecutors previously told the court the documents were “in their original, intact condition in which they were seized.”
U.S. Congressman Jim Jordan holds a press conference at the U.S. Capitol. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“The government acknowledges that this is inconsistent with what government counsel previously understood and represented to the court,” a footnote in the filing reads.
In his letter, Jordan said the approval reflects the Justice Department’s “commitment to impartial justice, whether the Office of the Special Counsel misled the federal court, and whether the Office of the Special Counsel has upheld the Department’s ‘highest professional standards.’ “We have expressed serious concerns” about whether he had enthusiastically supported the move, he said. of Justice. ”
Jordan is now asking the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility to “hold accountable” lawyers who may have violated the standards.
Mr. Jordan requested that the office provide all documents and records that reference or relate to allegations of ethical misconduct involving Mr. Smith, Chief Prosecutor Jay Blatt, or other attorneys appointed to the Office of Special Counsel. requesting that it be submitted.
Former President Trump (left) and Special Counsel Jack Smith. (Getty Images)
Jordan is also asking for all documents and records related to the “operation” to be turned over by May 20, including documents seized from President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in August 2022.
The investigation into Jordan began after Trump’s co-defendants in the case asked for a delay as their lawyers struggled to uncover the origins of some of the documents in the evidence box. Ta.
Judge unseals FBI files in Trump secrets case, including detailed timeline of Mar-a-Lago attack
FBI agents seized 33 boxes of documents from President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, Florida mansion in August 2022, sparking a new legal battle that Trump called a “fraud.” The investigation was overseen by Special Counsel Smith, appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, who indicted Trump on 40 felonies, including violating the Espionage Act, lying to investigators, and conspiracy to obstruct justice. There is.
Former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. (Charles Traynor Jr./Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
President Trump has pleaded not guilty and denounced the incident as “election fraud” promoted by the Biden administration and “deranged Jack Smith.”
The case is scheduled to go to trial on May 20, but the date is subject to change, and presiding judge Eileen Cannon has released a trove of documents providing notable updates to the case ahead of the trial. We conducted a survey.
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Meanwhile, former President Trump called for Smith’s arrest after he admitted to discrepancies.
“Now, deranged Jack, in his filing before Judge Cannon, says what I have been claiming since the illegal attack on my Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida: that he and “We have acknowledged with clear evidence that our team committed the crime by mishandling and tampering with the very boxes we used as an excuse to file this bogus lawsuit,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday. “These highly illegal acts by politicized ‘persecutors’ mandate an immediate end to this entire witch hunt. End the ‘Box of Hoaxes’.” MAGA 2024! ”
President Trump added: “Arrest deranged Jack Smith. He’s a criminal!”
Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.
