House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) launched an investigation into Special Counsel Jack Smith’s acknowledgment that alleged evidence against former President Donald Trump in the classified documents case was altered or manipulated after the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago.
The probe is the latest effort to conduct oversight of President Joe Biden’s Justice Department, which Republicans accuse of conducting selective prosecutions.
Smith acknowledged in a court filing on May 3 that some of the evidence was altered, raising questions about whether Smith upheld the “highest ethical standards,” Jordan wrote Monday to the DOJ’s Office of Accountability:
It is imperative that the Department operate with a high level of professionalism and integrity in all its prosecutions. The role of a prosecutor is to seek justice. This obligation requires all Department prosecutors, including and especially Special Counsel Smith and the attorneys in his office, to investigate and prosecute claims without the taint of prosecutorial misconduct.
#NEWS: @Jim_Jordan investigates Jack Smith’s acknowledgment that some of the evidence in President Trump’s classified documents case was altered or manipulated after it was seized by the FBI in its raid on Mar-a-Lago. pic.twitter.com/9Qn6h9D3h5
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) May 7, 2024
Jordan’s letter comes as Judge Aileen Cannon granted Trump’s request and pushed back a key filing deadline in the case on Monday.
Judge Aileen Cannon (United States District Court)
The delay increases the chance that a potential trial in the classified documents case will not happen before the November election, the New York Times reported:
Mr. Trump has relentlessly pursued a strategy of delaying all four of the criminal cases he is facing, and if he succeeds in delaying his trial on charges of mishandling classified documents until after the election, he could order his Justice Department to drop the matter altogether if he wins.
Judge Cannon’s postponement of the filing deadline was merely the latest example of her acceding to Mr. Trump’s attempts to delay the classified documents trial. Even though she held a hearing in Fort Pierce on March 1 specifically to change the current May 20 start of the trial, she has not yet selected a new date.
And she has failed to make any decisions on several important motions, which has resulted in further delays.
Trump’s criminal business records trial is currently underway in Manhattan. It is likely the only trial he will face before November.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
