BREAKING NEWS: Jim Jordan Ruthlessly Grills AG Garland About Selection Of Jack Smith, Email Record

5 months ago

At today's House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) grilled AG Merrick Garland about Special Counsel Jack Smith.

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Transcript

00:00 Thank you.

00:01 Gentlemen, yields back.

00:02 Mr. Garland, why?

00:03 Why Jack Smith?

00:04 Why'd you pick him?

00:05 I've said at the time I appointed Mr. Smith, I explained he was independent.

00:13 He was a longtime career prosecutor with.

00:17 There are probably other people who you would describe as independent, longtime career prosecutor.

00:20 Why did you pick this?

00:21 It's probably the most high profile special counsel investigation, maybe in American history.

00:25 You're going to be investigating a former president, a candidate for president and leading

00:29 in all the polls and you pick Jack Smith.

00:33 Most important selection maybe ever made from attorney general when you come to a special

00:36 counsel.

00:37 I just want to know why you could have picked former AGs, deputy AGs, US attorneys.

00:42 You got all kinds of lawyers in this town, but you pick Jack Smith.

00:45 All the people you just mentioned were political, would be political appointees.

00:49 I appointed somebody who was not a political appointee, somebody who was independent, nonpartisan

00:55 with a record of career experience as a prosecutor.

00:58 That seemed to me the perfect resume for making that kind of.

01:02 He was a guy, you guy, guy worked, you had to bring him back from Europe.

01:05 He worked at the ICC, worked at the World Court.

01:07 He was the best pick for the most high profile investigation ever.

01:12 He was independent.

01:13 He was nonpartisan.

01:14 He had never held a political office.

01:15 He was never appointed in a political office.

01:18 Is he your first choice?

01:19 He had a long career as a career prosecutor.

01:20 Is he your first choice?

01:22 I'm not going to go into the questions.

01:25 Did you know him before you picked him?

01:26 I did not.

01:27 You never worked with him?

01:28 I did not.

01:29 Did you meet with him prior to announcing his selection and telling him what was going

01:32 on?

01:33 Of course I did.

01:34 What happened in that meeting?

01:35 I met with him.

01:36 I asked him if he would be willing to do this.

01:37 We talked about my understandings of the role of this office, which are on the public record.

01:43 That's all.

01:44 Did he ask for the job?

01:49 This is not a job I don't think anybody asks for.

01:51 I'm sorry.

01:52 No, but that's not the question I asked you.

01:53 I said, did Jack Smith ask for the job?

01:55 He did not ask me for the job, no.

01:57 Did he convey through someone else that he wanted the job?

02:00 I would be surprised if that were the case, but I don't know.

02:02 You don't know?

02:03 No, I don't know.

02:05 So he may have?

02:07 I can only tell you what I know.

02:09 I chose him because he had a record of impartial career experience as a prosecutor.

02:16 That's why he was chosen.

02:18 Was it impartial when he went after Governor McDonnell?

02:20 He was a member of the-

02:21 It was after Governor McDonnell, that case gets appealed to the Supreme Court.

02:24 The Supreme Court unanimously said it was wrong and overturns the conviction?

02:28 He was in the public integrity section of the Justice Department, a career position.

02:34 They made the decisions they thought were warranted, and we respect the decision of

02:38 the Supreme Court.

02:39 Did the fact that he was interested in going after the very people who were targeted by

02:42 the IRS about a decade ago, did that have any influence on your selection?

02:46 Let's put up this slide here.

02:48 This is from Jack Smith to some other folks in the Justice Department, and it says, "Could

02:54 we ever charge a conspiracy to violate laws of the U.S. for misuse of such non-profits

02:59 to get around existing campaign finance laws?"

03:02 Jack Smith was looking to prosecute the very people who were targeted by the Obama IRS.

03:09 I don't know.

03:10 You have excerpts from an email I've never seen.

03:13 You should know that I said-

03:14 IRS Commissioner Sarah- I'm just asking this way into your decision.

03:16 Did you know about this-

03:17 No.

03:18 No.

03:19 I don't know if it's- I also don't know if it's true now.

03:22 IRS Commissioner Sarah Ingram oversees this from Jack Smith himself.

03:25 Let's discuss tomorrow, but maybe we should try to set up a meeting this week.

03:28 Here's the response.

03:29 Here's the response.

03:30 You didn't get your meeting with Ms. Ingram from the IRS, but she's sitting ahead of the

03:34 exempt organizations.

03:35 Lois Lerner is known to us.

03:37 Jack Smith meeting with Lois Lerner, looking for ways to prosecute the very people who

03:40 were victims of the Obama IRS.

03:43 I'm just asking, did that factor in your decision to name Jack Smith as special counsel?

03:48 I didn't have any idea about the things-

03:50 You didn't know about that.

03:51 I didn't know, and I don't know whether they're true now by looking at this.

03:54 They're definitely true, but you didn't know about it.

03:57 This guy was so important, you have to bring him from Europe back here to go after President

04:00 Trump, name him as a special counsel.

04:03 Do you regret the pick?

04:04 I'm sorry, I couldn't-

04:05 Do you regret picking him?

04:06 No, I do not regret picking him.

04:09 Well, prosecutors aren't supposed to tamper with evidence, and it looks like that's what

04:11 he did.

04:13 He changed the sequence of the documents that he seized from Mar-a-Lago.

04:17 I'm sorry, that's a false characterization, but that is-

04:20 Here's what he said to the court, Mr. Attorney General.

04:23 There are some boxes where the order of items within the box is not the same as in the associated

04:27 scans.

04:28 I mean, he said it.

04:29 I didn't say it.

04:30 He told the court that.

04:31 Now you're asking me to comment on a discovery dispute that's going on, going in a court?

04:35 I don't know the facts of it, and I'm not going to comment on it.

04:37 No, this is from Jack Smith filing with the court.

04:39 He admitted to the court that they tamper with the evidence.

04:42 He mishandled the very documents he's charging President Trump with mishandling, and I'm

04:45 just asking, do you regret picking this guy as the special counsel in the most important

04:49 special counsel investigation probably in American history?

04:52 I'm sorry, I did not hear the words "tamper" in the statement that Mr. Smith filed.

04:57 He did not use those words.

04:58 Well, let me ask you this.

04:59 I'm going to leave that to-

05:00 Are you supposed to change the order of the documents that you seized, and the physical

05:03 documents don't match up with the scanned documents?

05:05 Are you supposed to do that as a prosecutor?

05:07 This is a matter in dispute, in discovery, in that court, and I'm going to leave it for

05:11 the district court to make a determination after-

05:13 I'll just say one last thing.

05:14 The district court makes a determination-

05:15 It's not in dispute.

05:16 This is what he said in the court filing.

05:18 Jack Smith's team said that to the judge in the court.

05:22 By the way, this case is now basically on hold because they've screwed up so many things.

05:26 Again, I don't know whether your description of the facts are true or not true, and I'm

05:30 not going to intrude in a decision in a district court.

05:34 The chair recognizes the gentleman from California.

BREAKING NEWS: Jim Jordan Ruthlessly Grills AG Garland About Selection Of Jack Smith, Email Record

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