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OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
6:10 PM – Thursday, December 19, 2024
An inquiry into whether Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team violated any legal guidelines in conducting their probe against President-elect Trump has been launched by the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR).
In a letter acquired by The Hill, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) revealed that the office initiated an investigation in June 2023 following a prosecutor’s self-report of a complaint from a defense lawyer involved in the Florida classified materials case.
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Following multiple Congressional letters asking for a review of Smith’s work, Jordan explained that Smith’s announcement of resignation from his job as a special counsel sparked an inquiry into “allegations of attorney misconduct by Smith’s office.”
It is mandatory for prosecutors to report certain concerns from defense lawyers, which also requires an OPR review.
“A self-referral therefore is not an indication that misconduct necessarily took place, but merely brings to the attention of OPR allegations made by defense counsel. In this case, the Special Counsel’s Office properly followed this process and alerted OPR to misconduct alleged by defense counsel to the court,” wrote Jeffrey Ragsdale, the career Justice Department attorney tasked with heading the OPR.
Although the specific, detailed scope of the OPR’s investigation is unclear, the letter’s self-referral follows Jay Bratt, a lead prosecutor on the investigation, noting earlier grievances from a lawyer for one of Trump’s co-defendants.
Trump valet Walt Nauta’s lawyer, Stanley Woodward, “accused Bratt of bringing up his interest in a judicial nomination as a pressure tactic,” the Hill reported. After claiming that the accusation was untrue, Bratt said that he was merely pointing out Woodward’s affiliation with a panel that manages judicial nominations.
“Bratt mentioned this to Woodward early in their meeting purely as a matter of professional courtesy and only to indicate to Woodward that he understood that Woodward must have a good reputation. Nothing more was intended,” Smith’s team wrote in court papers in August.
Prosecutors also claimed that after learning that his client was a target, Woodward waited another nine months to file a report about the incident.
“The notion that a 30-year veteran federal prosecutor would engage in such a ham-handed tactic in this sensitive investigation in a meeting alongside three other prosecutors and in the context of his first interaction with a defense attorney is nonsensical,” they wrote.
Ragsdale pointed out that Smith’s work’s completion served as the catalyst for any wider review or evaluation.
“Such a practice ensures that the OPR process is not inappropriately used to disrupt an ongoing prosecution and avoids interference with the court’s own supervision of the case. The policy also allows OPR to consider the allegations as a whole, after the record is complete, and in the context of the full litigation,” he wrote.
Jordan has launched investigations into Bratt personally as well as into Smith’s crew and their contacts.
“While we appreciate you confirming an open investigation into Jack Smith’s prosecutors, we are concerned that your refusal to take prompt investigative steps will allow these attorneys to evade internal accountability by leaving the Department,” Jordan stated.
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