House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan is investigating whether evidence seized by the FBI in its raid on former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s classified records case was “altered or manipulated.”
Jordan, R-Ohio, sent a letter to the Office of Professional Responsibility this week after Smith admitted that seized documents are no longer in their original order and sequence.
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Smith and federal prosecutors admitted in a court filing on Friday that “there are some boxes where the order of items within that box is not the same as in the associated scans.” The prosecutors had previously told the court that the documents were “in their original, intact form as seized.”
U.S. Rep. 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.
Jordan, in his letter, said the acknowledgment “presents grave concerns” about the Justice Department’s “commitment to impartial justice, whether the Special Counsel’s Office misled a federal court, whether the Special Counsel’s Office strenuously upheld the ‘highest professional standards’ of the Department of Justice.”
Jordan is now asking the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility to “hold accountable” attorneys who may have violated the standards.
Jordan is demanding that the office produce all documents and records referring or relating to any allegation of ethical impropriety regarding Smith, top prosecutor Jay Bratt or any other attorney assigned to the special counsel’s office.
Former President Trump, left, and special counsel Jack Smith. (Getty Images)
Jordan is also requesting all documents and records related to the “manipulation” of documents seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022, among others, by May 20.
Jordan’s investigation comes after Trump’s co-defendants in the case asked for a delay as lawyers were having trouble figuring out the origin of some of the documents in the evidence boxes.
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The FBI agents seized 33 boxes of documents in August 2022 from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, spurring another legal battle that Trump has called a “scam.” The investigation is overseen by special prosecutor Smith, who Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed to the job, and has charged Trump with 40 felony counts, including allegedly violating the Espionage Act, making false statements to investigators and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. (Charles Trainor Jr./Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges and slammed the case as an “Election Inference Scam” promoted by the Biden administration and “Deranged Jack Smith.”
The case is slated to head to trial on May 20, though the date may change, with presiding Judge Aileen Cannon underacting a trove of documents in the lead-up to the trial that have provided notable updates to the case.
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Meanwhile, after Smith’s acknowledgment of the inconsistencies, former President Trump called for his arrest.
“Now, Deranged Jack has admitted in a filing in front of Judge Cannon to what I have been saying happened since the Illegal RAID on my home, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida – That he and his team committed blatant Evidence Tampering by mishandling the very Boxes they used as a pretext to bring this Fake Case,” Trump posted to Truth Social on Friday. “These deeply Illegal actions by the Politicized ‘Persecutors’ mandate that this whole Witch Hunt be DROPPED IMMEDIATELY. END THE ‘BOXES HOAXES.’ MAGA2024!”
Trump added: “ARREST DERANGED JACK SMITH. HE IS A CRIMINAL!”
Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.