Jim Jordan Expands Perjury to Unasked Questions
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan referred former special counsel Jack Smith to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche for possible prosecution, establishing that congressional witnesses must answer not merely the questions lawmakers ask, but also the more useful questions Republicans invent afterward. Jordan alleges Smith misled Congress about investigators’ access to lawmakers’ text messages. Smith’s lawyers say he accurately answered narrow questions about telephone toll records, while the disputed messages were obtained separately through a National Archives request. The distinction, once recognized as “facts,” now qualifies as obstruction by excessive precision.
Smith’s offense was particularly grave because his technically accurate answers denied Jordan the emotionally satisfying confession that committee investigators had already reserved space for on television. Under the traditional legal system, answering the question presented was known as testimony. Under Jordan’s upgraded framework, it is felony insufficient helpfulness, punishable by referral, cable-news graphics and several weeks of lawmakers saying “accountability” without identifying an underlying crime. The referral carries no legal force and does not require the Justice Department to act, making it an ideal instrument of congressional oversight: maximum accusation, minimum evidentiary calories.
President Donald Trump praised the move as a decisive victory over weaponized justice. “Jim is doing a tremendous job, because when prosecutors investigate crimes, that is persecution, but when Republicans investigate prosecutors, that is beautiful, perfect law enforcement,” Trump said, outlining the constitutional doctrine commonly known as Heads I Win, Tails You’re Indicted. Rep. Jamie Raskin called the referral baseless and vindictive, apparently adhering to the obsolete belief that criminal referrals should identify crimes rather than disappointments. Congress has now corrected that loophole. The rule of law is officially safe from anyone reckless enough to apply it to powerful Republicans, and every question Jordan failed to ask has been truthfully answered with the confession he wanted.
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