Video transcript
- 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, the staff would put this up on the screen. Thankful for the great staff who discovered the email where I learned for the first 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, one 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 four years ago in May of 2022 and I couldn't object because I didn't know. I didn't know until about three 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, one of which has Attorney General Merrick Garland's signature on it. And the focus was the electors. Now that was six 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? - I'm sorry, sir. - 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-- - It wasn't that the purpose of the entire investigation as it was set out? 'Cause putting aside that in 1960, we've 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-- - So why did you deem it appropriate to monitor Cleta Mitchell's long distance phone records in 2023, two and a half 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 two and a half years after the 2020 election was certified? - With respect to Sidney Powell, she is one of the co-conspirators alleged in the indictment. I don't know what you mean by monitoring, sir, if you're talking about-- - 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 First League Policy Institute, NRCC, NRSC, PACs, conservative groups, people all across the country, citizens, 'cause 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. 'Cause 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 a disqualification order should face disciplinary action or disbarment. I yield back.
Transcribed automatically. Expect errors in names and numbers.