Former Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith, center, and his attorney Lanny Breuer, center rear, arrive at a hearing room in the Rayburn House. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)
Issa, in particular, excoriated Smith for the decision to seek the tolling records of Republicans in the House and Senate — which he said Thursday was tantamount to spying on his political "enemies."
Smith, for his part, defended the tolling records as "common practice" in such investigations.
"Maybe they’re not your political enemies, but they sure as [heck] were Joe Biden's poltiical enemies, weren’t they?" Issa asked Smith. "They were Harris's political enemies," he said, referring to the former vice president. "They were the enemies of the president — and you were their arm, weren’t you?"
"No," Smith said.
JACK SMITH SUBPOENAED FOR DEPOSITION WITH HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith takes an oath before the House Judiciary Committee at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (Mark Schiefelbein / AP Photo)
Smith previously said that the Public Integrity Section had signed off on the subpoenas, a point corroborated by previously released public records. Those records also showed that the Public Integrity Section told prosecutors to be wary of concerns lawmakers could raise about the Constitution's speech or debate clause, which gives Congress members added protections.
The subpoenas to the phone companies were accompanied by gag orders blocking the lawmakers from learning about the existence of the subpoenas for at least one year.
Smith previously told the House lawmakers in a closed-door hearing that the D.C. federal court, which authorized the gag orders, would not have been aware that they applied to Congress members.
"I don’t think we identified that, because I don’t think that was Department policy at the time," Smith said.
Asked during the earlier deposition about who should be held accountable for lawmakers who felt that the seizure of a narrow set of their phone data was a constitutional violation, Smith said Trump should be held accountable.
"These records are people, in the case of the Senators, Donald Trump directed his co-conspirators to call these people to further delay the proceedings," Smith said.
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"He chose to do that. If Donald Trump had chosen to call a number of Democratic senators, we would have gotten toll records for Democratic Senators. So responsibility for why these records, why we collected them, that's — that lies with Donald Trump," he said at the time.
Breanne Deppisch is a national politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI and other national news. She previously covered national politics at the Washington Examiner and The Washington Post, with additional bylines in Politico Magazine, the Colorado Gazette and others. You can send tips to Breanne at Breanne.Deppisch@fox.com, or follow her on X at @breanne_dep.
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