House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan is currently investigating whether evidence seized by the FBI in a raid on former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home has been altered or manipulated. This investigation stems from special counsel Jack Smith's classified records case.
Jordan, a Republican from Ohio, raised concerns after Smith admitted that the seized documents are no longer in their original order and sequence. In a letter to the Office of Professional Responsibility, Jordan expressed worries about the Justice Department’s commitment to impartial justice and questioned whether the Special Counsel’s Office misled a federal court.
Smith and federal prosecutors recently acknowledged in a court filing that there are discrepancies in the order of items within some of the seized boxes compared to the associated scans. This admission contradicted previous statements made to the court that the documents were in their original, intact form as seized.
Jordan is now calling on the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility to hold accountable any attorneys who may have violated ethical standards. He has requested all documents and records related to the alleged manipulation of documents seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence by May 20.
The investigation comes as Trump’s co-defendants in the case requested a delay due to difficulties in determining the origin of some documents in the evidence boxes. The FBI seized 33 boxes of documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August 2022, leading to a legal battle that Trump has labeled a 'scam.'
The case, overseen by special prosecutor Jack Smith and involving 40 felony counts against Trump, including violating the Espionage Act and conspiracy to obstruct justice, is scheduled to go to trial on May 20. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges, denouncing the case as an 'Election Inference Scam' orchestrated by the Biden administration and 'Deranged Jack Smith.'
Presiding Judge Aileen Cannon is reviewing a trove of documents ahead of the trial, which has provided significant updates to the case. The outcome of Jordan's investigation and the trial itself will be closely watched as the legal battle surrounding Trump’s Mar-a-Lago documents continues.
