{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-to-greer-investigate-jack-smith-for-election-interference", "Cotton to Greer: Investigate Jack Smith for Election Interference", "2025-07-30", "2025", "2025-07", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n\nContact: Caroline Tabler or Patrick McCann (202) 224-2353\n\nJuly 30, 2025\n\nCotton to Greer: Investigate Jack Smith for Election Interference\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today sent a letter to Acting Special Counsel Jamieson Greer requesting an investigation into whether former Special Counsel Jack Smith violated federal law by using political actions to influence the 2024 election against then-candidate President Donald Trump.\n\nIn part, Senator Cotton wrote:\n\n\u201cThese actions were not standard, necessary, or justified\u2014unless Smith\u2019s real purpose was to influence the election. In fact, throughout Special Counsel Smith\u2019s tenure, he regularly used far-fetched and aggressive legal theories to prosecute the Republican nominee for president. I would add that President Biden also called during the election for President Trump to be \u2018locked up.\u2019\u201d\n\nFull text of the letter may be found here and below.\n\nMr. Jamieson Greer\n\nActing Special Counsel\n\nUnited States Office of Special Counsel\n\n1730 M Street NW\n\nWashington, D.C. 20036-4504\n\nDear Acting Special Counsel Greer:\n\nI write requesting the Office of Special Counsel to investigate whether Jack Smith, Special Counsel for Attorney General Merrick Garland, unlawfully took political actions to influence the 2024 election to harm then-candidate President Donald Trump. As the Office of the Special Counsel is tasked with ensuring federal employees aren\u2019t conducting partisan political activity under the guise of their federal employment, you\u2019re well situated to determine whether Smith broke the law.\n\nMany of Smith\u2019s legal actions seem to have no rationale except for an attempt to affect the 2024 election results\u2014actions that would violate federal law.\n\nConsider just the following examples, where Smith expedited trial proceedings and deliberately published information, with no legitimate purpose:\n\nAfter filing the indictment against President Trump on August 10, 2023, Smith demanded the trial start January 2, 2024, with jury selection beginning as early as December 11, 2023. Defendants in these types of cases typically have more than two years to prepare for trial, but President Trump\u2019s defense team had fewer than six months to review 13 million pages of evidence and thousands of hours of video footage provided by prosecutors. Notably, jury selection was to begin just two weeks before the Iowa caucuses.\n\nOn December 11, 2023, after President Trump filed his defense with the District of Columbia District Court, Smith pressed for a trial before the election by moving for an expedited review by the appeals court. On the same day, however, Smith further escalated this push and filed a petition with the Supreme Court to bypass the district court. Smith skirted the normal appellate process but failed to articulate a legitimate reason the court should grant this abnormal request.\n\nFollowing the Supreme Court\u2019s decision recognizing presidential immunity, Smith\u2019s prosecution team filed an initial brief on September 5, 2024, although there was no defense motion pending. The judge granted Smith permission to file the brief on September 26, 2024, but pointed out this was \u201cprocedurally irregular.\u201d This timeline is highly unusual considering complex litigation matters normally take place over several months, rather than a mere three weeks. This action also appears to violate the Justice Department\u2019s 60-day rule, which prohibits timing any action, for the purpose of affecting any election or giving advantage or disadvantage to a candidate, within 60 days of the election.\n\nSmith\u2019s brief on Trump\u2019s immunity from prosecution was 165 pages, which required special permission to exceed the normal maximum page limit by four times. In fact, Smith also incorporated grand jury testimony typically kept secret at this point in other proceedings. This action appears to be a deliberate and underhanded effort to disclose unsubstantiated and extensive allegations timed to maximize electoral impact.\n\nThese actions were not standard, necessary, or justified\u2014unless Smith\u2019s real purpose was to influence the election. In fact, throughout Special Counsel Smith\u2019s tenure, he regularly used far-fetched and aggressive legal theories to prosecute the Republican nominee for president. I would add that President Biden also called during the election for President Trump to be \u201clocked up.\u201d\n\nPresident Trump of course vanquished Joe Biden, Jack Smith, every Democrat who weaponized the law against him, but President Trump\u2019s astounding victory doesn\u2019t excuse Smith of responsibility for his unlawful election interference. I therefore ask the Office of Special Counsel to investigate whether Jack Smith or any members of his team unlawfully acted for political purposes.\n\nSincerely,\n\nTom Cotton\n\nUnited States Senator\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T14:40:33Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-to-greer-investigate-jack-smith-for-election-interference"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.739203067496419, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}