Secret phone-record seizure sparks personal lawsuit from GOP senator
FIRST ON FOX: A top Republican senator whose phone toll records were secretly subpoenaed during Jack Smith's investigation of President Donald Trump sued the former special counsel in his personal...
By Fox News · Fox News
FIRST ON FOX: A top Republican senator whose phone toll records were secretly subpoenaed during Jack Smith's investigation of President Donald Trump sued the former special counsel in his personal capacity Wednesday, arguing he was never lawfully empowered to wield the authority behind the Arctic Frost investigation. The lawsuit, Senator Marsha Blackburn v. John L. Smith, argues the prosecutor lacked lawful authority to serve as special counsel and violated the lawmaker's rights by obtaining the records. Blackburn is asking a federal court to declare Smith's appointment unconstitutional, order the records destroyed and award $1 in nominal damages. The case therefore seeks to test not only Smith’s tactics, but the legitimacy of the authority he claims to have exercised as special counsel appointed by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland during the Biden administration. "This lawsuit is solely about holding Mr. Smith accountable and ensuring that our nation’s justice system can never again be weaponized against the American people," Blackburn, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital. JACK SMITH HIT WITH CRIMINAL REFERRAL AS GOP MOVES TESTIMONY FIGHT TOWARD PROSECUTION "Through his Arctic Frost witch-hunt that targeted conservatives across America and even the president of the United States, Jack Smith perpetrated one of the worst abuses of government power in our nation’s history," she said. Blackburn’s suit argues that Smith lacked lawful authority to hold the office he purported to exercise, while separately seeking to impose personal liability on him for the way that purported authority was used against her. JACK SMITH THRUST BACK INTO SPOTLIGHT AT BLANCHE HEARING OVER EXPOSED SENATORS’ MESSAGES The case opens a new legal front against Smith one day after his contentious Senate Judiciary Committee testimony , during which he acknowledged approving subpoenas for members of Congress despite understanding that nondisclosure orders prevented them from challenging the seizures…