Let me ask you this. Am I on this list?
Did you
target my records and subpoena my phone toll records?
My understanding is your records were subpoenaed by prosecutors before
I became special counsel.
Well, staff put this up on the screen.
I'm thankful for the great staff who discovered the email where I learned for the 1st time a few weeks ago
that my phone records were indeed targeted.
We called AT&T and we've learned that they were given to the Department of Justice,
as this
email indicates,
because I had been in communication
with Scott Perry,
1 of my colleagues here in Congress,
who literally had his phone taken from him in front of his family.
And of course, we've already talked about in this document, it talks about you could be in violation of the privilege by even obtaining and possessing this information if the member objected to the disclosure.
This happened 4 years ago in May of 2022 and I couldn't object because I didn't know.
I didn't know until about 3 weeks ago.
My question here is, was there any limits to your investigation or the investigation that preceded you, Mr. Smith, because as egregious as a violation of separation of powers, this is as an egregious and abusive power. It is
it's far more concerning. You are clearly targeting
American citizens for merely being conservative or supporting the president.
We've got memos that we've already been talking about in this hearing from April 2022 that preceded you that established and opened the investigations, 1 of which has Attorney General Merrick Garland's signature on it. And the focus
was the electors. Now that was 6 months before you were appointed. You testified earlier, you met and interviewed Merrick Garland and Deputy AG
Lisa Monaco. And you briefed the AG and deputy multiple times. Did you brief them on the electors and the prosecution of their supposed crimes?
Did I? I'm sorry, did you brief them on the electors and their supposed crimes?
I don't recall specific,
conversations, but I'm sure that in the course of briefing them, I just wasn't that the purpose of the entire investigation as it was set out?
Because putting aside that in 1960, we already talked about my friend Mr. Tiffany, that Hawaii put forward an alternate slate of electors, the investigation
pivoted to President Trump and frankly anybody who knew him. Do you know who Cleta Mitchell is?
Yes, I do. She's an election lawyer that was involved in filing an election contest on behalf of President Trump in Georgia in December of 2020.
A 64 page complaint with over 1100 pages of exhibits, witness affidavits and expert witness reports documenting thousands of votes cast in violation of Georgia law, but which were nevertheless included in the vote totals. Now, notwithstanding
the disposition of the
cases that was filed, is that a criminal act?
Filing an election contest on behalf of a candidate for office, a client.
Is that a criminal act? Yes or no?
No. In fact, we see why did you deem it appropriate to monitor Cleta Mitchell's long distance phone records in 2023, 2.5 years after the election context was filed and after the presidential electors were certified.
What about Jen Ellis? What about Sidney Powell? What about Bill Sepien? What crime did you suspect had been committed by them that would warrant monitoring their phone records 2.5 years after the
2020 election was certified.
With respect to Sidney Powell,
she is 1 of the co-conspirators
alleged in the indictment.
I don't know what you mean by monitoring sir if you're talking about that. Well there were some 400 plus Republican conservative groups and leaders who were targeted by your investigation.
Their financial records were obtained, records of the RNC, the Trump campaign, Cleta Mitchell, the Conservative Partnership Institute, the American 1st Policy Institute, NRCC, NRNC,
PACs, conservative groups, people all across the country, citizens, because we hear a lot about members of Congress.
And we should because of separation of powers and the egregious abuse of power. But what we're not talking about enough, in my opinion, are the American citizens that have been targeted.
Because frankly, are there any limits to the power of a special prosecutor or special counsel?
So much so in your abuse of power that in the summer of
2024,
the indictment involving classified documents was dismissed
after determining your appointment violated the Appointments Clause of the Constitution,
but you continue to sign your name on court filings
until the time you resigned from office in January of 2025.
A federal judge has recently stated a prosecutor who continues to sign his name in court filings after disqualification order should face disciplinary action or disbarment.
I yield back.
