Smith Lawyers Offer Public Testimony, Defend Subpoena

Attorneys Lanny Breuer and Peter Koski defended former special counsel Jack Smith’s 2023 grand-jury subpoenas for the toll (phone-metadata) records of nine Republican lawmakers — limited to Jan. 4–7, 2021 — saying the requests sought routing metadata (numbers, times, durations), not call content, were narrowly tailored to investigate reports that President Trump and surrogates urged senators to delay certification, and were lawful and consistent with DOJ policy. They said the records were disclosed in the Trump indictment, produced in discovery, and noted similar metadata collection has been used in other DOJ investigations. Amid GOP accusations of political weaponization and calls for disciplinary action from senators including Chuck Grassley and Josh Hawley, two FBI agents involved were later fired, which Smith’s lawyers said does not undercut the lawfulness of the subpoena. Smith’s lawyers have offered that he appear publicly to rebut mischaracterizations and have asked the Justice Department for guidance on grand-jury secrecy, assurance he will not be punished for testifying, and access to special-counsel files, saying he is willing to testify openly once those conditions are met. Democrats including Rep. Jamie Raskin urged GOP committee chairs to accept the public offer so the American people can judge Smith’s work, while Republicans have continued to press referrals and disbarment calls. Smith has publicly defended his prosecutions and said politics did not influence his decisions.