Sen. Marsha Blackburn and several Republican lawmakers have called for a formal investigation into former special counsel Jack Smith, accusing him of unethical conduct and political targeting against members of Congress.
In a letter sent Friday to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Blackburn, joined by Sens. Lindsey Graham, Dan Sullivan, Tommy Tuberville, and Rep. Mike Kelly, alleged that Smith engaged in what they described as a coordinated effort to monitor GOP lawmakers.
The Tennessee senator accused Smith of weaponizing his role to undermine conservatives.
“Jack Smith was a rogue special counsel on a weaponized witch hunt against Republican Senators,” Blackburn wrote on X. “There must be consequences for this abuse of power.”
Jack Smith was a rogue special counsel on a weaponized witch hunt against Republican Senators.
There must be consequences for this abuse of power. I just sent a letter to @AGPamBondi urging the DOJ to investigate him.https://t.co/8rwpsdAmEa
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) October 17, 2025
The lawmakers argued that Smith had taken deliberate steps to “spy on duly elected members of Congress,” adding that his actions reflected serious violations of constitutional protections.
They urged Bondi to refer Smith to the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), which reviews allegations of misconduct by Justice Department attorneys.
If OPR finds wrongdoing, the lawmakers want the results sent to professional licensing authorities in Tennessee and New York, where Smith is licensed to practice law.
The letter said that the agencies “should consider all options in holding Smith accountable for this misconduct—including disbarment.”
The push for an internal DOJ review follows an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which opened its own probe into whether Smith’s conduct violated federal laws against political activity by government employees.
That inquiry was launched after Sen. Tom Cotton accused Smith of using his prosecutorial powers to influence the 2024 election in favor of the Biden administration.
Attorneys representing Smith, Lanny Breuer and Peter Koski, rejected the allegations, calling them meritless. They said their client acted solely according to the law and evidence.
“Jack Smith’s actions were consistent with a prosecutor who followed the facts and the law, without regard for political consequences,” they commented in a joint statement.
Smith, who previously oversaw the Justice Department’s investigations into President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents and alleged election interference, has long been a lightning rod for criticism from Republicans who viewed his cases as politically charged.
Trump himself denounced the investigations as a partisan “witch hunt” and pleaded not guilty to all charges.
According to the letter, Smith’s team obtained the phone records of nine Republican lawmakers, including Blackburn, without their knowledge.
The group described the surveillance as a blatant abuse of power. “To the best we can tell, Smith’s team went on this fishing expedition for one simple reason: we are Republicans who support President Trump,” the senators wrote.
Smith stepped down from his role at the DOJ in January, shortly after Trump’s election victory.
He had previously stated that department policy prohibited the prosecution of a sitting president.
In a recent interview, he continued to defend his prior work, rejecting claims that politics influenced his investigations.
“The idea that politics played a role in who worked on that case, or who got chosen, is ludicrous,” Smith said, explaining that his team was composed of nonpartisan professionals.
He added that if he had ever told a supervisor not to pursue a legitimate case because of political sensitivities, “my boss would have tossed me out a window.”
He maintained that decisions in his investigations were based entirely on evidence.
“The people on my team were similar to what I saw throughout the Department of Justice—apolitical people who wanted to do the right thing and do public service,” Smith said.
Addressing comparisons between Trump’s classified documents case and the separate probe into former President Biden, Smith argued that the two situations were distinct.
“One of the major differences between the two cases is the obstructive conduct in the case I investigated,” he said, noting that proving illegal possession requires showing that the defendant acted knowingly and willfully.
He said that Trump’s alleged refusal to return government materials served as key evidence of intent. “That sort of evidence didn’t exist in the other case,” he added.
However, in later comments, Smith voiced concern over what he described as the Trump administration’s increasingly aggressive use of law enforcement against political opponents.
He cited the recent federal indictments of former officials, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, former FBI Director James Comey, and ex-national security adviser John Bolton, as examples of what he called a troubling shift.
“If you are driven to achieve certain outcomes no matter what, that’s a real problem,” he said.
“That’s not something I saw in the Department of Justice. Nothing like what we see now has ever gone on.”
Smith criticized what he described as a growing politicization of the DOJ, pointing to the dismissal of a corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the prosecution of Comey as examples of inconsistency.
“When you get rid of the people who know most about national security, that doesn’t make the country safer,” he warned, referencing reports of experienced prosecutors leaving the department.
At a White House press conference this week, President Trump didn’t hold back in his condemnation of Smith, calling him a “criminal” and vowing accountability.
He said the special counsel’s actions during the investigations amounted to the “worst weaponization of a political opponent in the history of the world.”
“Deranged Jack Smith, in my opinion, is a criminal,” Trump told reporters.
