“You can’t make half-truths; you gotta’ tell the full truth,” House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said Thursday in his first interview since referring former Biden Administration Special Counsel Jack Smith to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution for willfully and intentionally making false statements during his December 17, 2025 deposition.“New information obtained by the Committee reveals how Mr. Smith likely circumvented key constitutional protections, including the Speech or Debate Clause, to spy on Members of Congress,” Jordan wrote in his referral letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.At the deposition, Smith was called to fully answer questions about the extent and methods of his sweeping investigation as special counsel of President Donald Trump and his congressional allies, the letter explains:“During the deposition on December 17, the Committee advised Mr. Smith that he was obliged to provide all necessary information that would make his responses truthful and to avoid half-truths or incomplete answers.”“We tell the witness at the start of those depositions, ‘You gotta’ tell the whole truth, you can’t give partial answers, you can’t mislead in any way,” Chairman Jordan noted in a Fox News Channel interview on Thursday:“And he definitely misled us, because he said he didn’t get content – when, in fact, he did, for 44 members of the United States Congress.“And when he got that information from the National Archives, he was supposed to filter it out, because we are a separate and equal branch of government and there’s a Speech and Debate clause in our constitution. They should have screened out any communications relative to our work as legislators.”“When you ask the special counsel, handpicked by the Biden Justice Department to go after President Trump…‘Did you get content of members of Congress’ communications and he says ‘No,’ that is not telling the truth when, in fact, he did,” Jordan told Fox News.“This is pretty darn clear in our eyes,” Jordan said, adding that Smith had even given instructions to prevent the members of Congress from finding out that he had obtained their toll records.“It’s always worse than we thought. It’s the one thing we get wrong,” the Judiciary chairman said, when asked if accusations of spying could be added to the charges against Smith:“It’s always worse than we thought when we start these things. The amount of information, the number of people he went after - we know he had people from Fox News, he got their communications as well - this blanket they threw out trying to scoop up every Republican in this town to go after President Trump is pretty broad.“And again, we think it’s pretty darn clear, from his deposition, from his public testimony, that he misled Congress. And 18 U.S.C. 1001 says you cannot do that. “And that’s why we referred it.”In his letter to Acting Attorney General Blanche, Chairman Jordan’s explains why the Judiciary Committee called Smith to be deposed:“Among other things, the Committee noted that it sought Mr. Smith’s testimony concerning his office’s ‘surveillance of sitting Members of Congress,’ noting specific interests in ‘how many other members of Congress were investigated as part of the Arctic Frost investigation and Jack Smith investigation’ and if ‘additional Members of Congress that were swept up’ in the investigation. The Committee subsequently issued a deposition subpoena for Mr. Smith.”pic.twitter.com/dYICd5CT65— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) July 23, 2026