Category: Daily Caller
‘Flagrant violation’: GOP lawmaker grills Jack Smith for ‘spying’ on former House speaker
Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) confronted ex-special counsel Jack Smith during a House committee hearing, accusing him and the Justice Department of secretly surveilling members of Congress and stomping on constitutional protections while investigating President Donald Trump.
Gill pressed Smith on his office using secret subpoenas and nondisclosure orders to obtain phone “toll records” from lawmakers, including then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), without notifying them or the public.
‘Nobody’s going to sue. … So who cares? We’re going to do it anyway.’
“In January of 2023, did you subpoena then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy’s toll records?” Gill asked.
“Yes, sir, we did,” Smith replied.
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SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
Gill pushed back, claiming Smith abused executive power to secretly collect phone data on Republican leadership.
“Collecting months’ worth of phone data on the Republican speaker of the House — the leader of the opposition — right after he got sworn in as speaker, all around the time of a major vote — that sounds like a flagrant violation of the Speech or Debate Clause to me,” Gill said.
The confrontation ramped up as Gill questioned Smith about the nondisclosure orders used to prevent McCarthy from learning that his records had been subpoenaed.
“At the time you secured those nondisclosure orders, was Speaker McCarthy a flight risk?” Gill asked.
“He was not,” Smith answered.
“Then why did your nondisclosure order refer to him as a flight risk?” Gill pressed. Gill then cited language in the court filing stating that disclosure could result in “flight from prosecution.”
“You think the speaker of the House is … going to hop on a plane and leave the country?” Gill asked.
“No,” Smith said, arguing that the language was not meant to apply personally to McCarthy but to general investigative risks.
Gill rejected that explanation.
RELATED: House Republican seeks criminal investigation into Jack Smith’s alleged surveillance scheme
Photo by Ricky Carioti/Washington Post/Getty Images
“This is clearly in reference to Speaker McCarthy,” Gill said. “You were using clearly false information to secure a nondisclosure order to hide from Speaker McCarthy and from the American people the fact that you were spying on his toll records.”
Gill also revealed that Smith’s office issued additional secret subpoenas in May 2023 for the toll records of nine U.S. senators and another House member, along with more nondisclosure orders.
“So again, nobody would know what you were doing,” Gill said. “The senators wouldn’t. The representatives wouldn’t. The American people wouldn’t.”
Gill then read from an internal DOJ email warning of “litigation risk” tied to compelling disclosure of lawmakers’ phone records due to Speech or Debate Clause concerns.
“As you are aware, there are some litigation risks regarding whether compelled disclosure of toll records of a member’s legislative calls violates the Speech or Debate Clause,” Gill read.
Gill emphasized another line from the same analysis, saying that because of “the low likelihood that any of the members listed below would be charged, the litigation risk should be minimal here.”
“In other words,” Gill said, “You’re using a novel legal theory. … You’re not charging any of these members. Nobody’s going to know about it because you issued NDOs. Nobody’s going to sue. … So who cares? We’re going to do it anyway.”
“You walked all over the Constitution throughout this entire process,” Gill added.
“It’s absolutely disgraceful.”
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‘Enough is enough’: Fed-up Florida sheriff has tough words for anti-ICE leftists who stormed Minnesota church
Grady Judd, the outspoken sheriff of Florida’s Polk County, most definitely is not shy about making his opinions known, whether they’re about crime in his own back yard or even crime of concern around the country.
Indeed, after leftists protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement stormed a church Sunday in St. Paul, Minnesota, Judd — like many Americans — was outraged and made sure to let residents of his Florida county know exactly where he stands.
‘Freedom of religion. It is our right in this United States of America.’
The following is what Judd had to say:
I’m standing in a house of worship. And I think about last weekend in St. Paul, Minnesota, where people who came to worship were attacked — they were attacked by rioters. The service was disrupted. They cut at the very fabric of this great United States of America. We settled this country so many years ago so we could worship free, the way we wanted to, in whatever house of worship we chose. That attack is unacceptable.
Then he added what many in Polk County wanted to hear: “I can assure you that had that attack been in this community, every one of those rioters would be in jail today. That’s where the federal government could have found them — on state charges, locked up.”
Judd concluded: “And I pray it’s that same way all across the United States of America. Enough is enough. Let’s join together for the good of the United States of America, let’s worship the way we want to, and let’s everyone renounce the horribleness of last Sunday in St. Paul, Minnesota.”
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The video showing Judd’s words received over 3 million views and elicited more than 20,000 comments since it was posted Tuesday; the following are some of the more popular reactions:
- “Grady Judd for sheriff of the world!” one commenter wrote.
- “I love Sheriff Grady Judd,” another user said. “We need more people like him in law enforcement all over this great country.”
- “Freedom of religion,” another commenter noted. “It is our right in this United States of America.”
- “Great commentary,” another user offered. “What’s troubling is that a segment of the American public is attempting to argue that the individuals who disrupted the church were merely ‘exercising their First Amendment rights.’ That claim collapses under even minimal scrutiny. Once they trespassed onto church property, any First Amendment protection ceased to apply. More importantly, their actions directly violated the First Amendment religious rights of the church and its members. If there were ever a clear-cut case for the DOJ to set a strong precedent by pursuing felony charges, this would be it. Serious consequences are warranted for conduct this egregious.”
As it happens, Nekima Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Louisa Allen were arrested Thursday in connection with the church-storming incident. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced later Thursday that William Kelly also was arrested.
However, former CNN talking head Don Lemon reportedly is escaping charges. Lemon claimed to have been acting as a journalist when he joined the group that stormed the church whose pastor reportedly leads an ICE office.
But CBS News sources said a Minnesota federal magistrate judge refused to sign a complaint against Lemon. “The attorney general is enraged at the magistrate’s decision,” according to a CBS News source said to be familiar with the matter.
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