WASHINGTON—The House Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday to refer former special counsel Jack Smith for criminal prosecution, alleging his pauses during a deposition earlier this year amounted to serial perjury.
The 14-page referral catalogued 37 distinct hesitations longer than two seconds, three throat clearings, and one instance where Smith stated, 'I don't recall.' The referral was based on an analysis by the newly formed House Select Subcommittee on Deposition Cadence and Micro-Expressions, which spent six weeks reviewing video frame by frame.
"We found at least 14 instances where Mr. Smith appeared to be thinking before answering," said Rep. Mike Collins, who chaired the review. "That is not the behavior of an innocent man."
Smith, through his attorneys at Covington & Burling, responded with a letter that could charitably be described as a total obliteration of the referral. The 11-page response opened by thanking Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan for his correspondence before noting that perjury requires a knowing false statement of material fact. It then suggested the committee might benefit from reviewing 18 U.S.C. § 1621, which was attached with relevant sections highlighted in yellow.
A third attachment, titled "A Brief Note on the Distinction Between 'Um' and 'I Am Actively Committing a Felony,'" ran a brisk three pages.
The referral is the latest legal maneuver by allies of Sweet Potato Hitler, who has long argued that procedural stumbles during hostile questioning are punishable offenses. Smith's lawyers did not include a similar primer on witness intimidation statutes, though the letter noted they had considered it.
"The committee's concern about a few seconds of silence is touching," the letter read. "We trust it will bring equal scrutiny to the many hours of silence from witnesses who simply refused to appear." That line referred to multiple former aides who ignored subpoenas entirely and faced no referral.
The committee spokesperson stood by the filing. "If we let this go, next thing you know people will be pleading the Fifth in the form of interpretive dance," the spokesperson said.
The Covington letter concluded by requesting that any future referrals be printed double-sided to conserve paper, as it planned to frame this one. The committee did not respond to a follow-up inquiry. A staffer was later seen practicing deposition answers in a mirror, staring at the person in the glass, and saying "um" only when strictly necessary.
