The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee asked a Department of Justice official on Thursday to appear before Congress to discuss how the department has addressed allegations of ethical violations against special counsel Jack Smith’s office.
Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) wrote to Jeffrey Ragsdale, the head of the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility, asking to arrange a closed-door interview with Ragsdale by Sept. 26, after the DOJ had been unresponsive to the chairman’s previous requests for information on the matter.
“In reply to our inquiries, the Department has declined to provide any substantive information or any meaningful response to give the Committee confidence” that the Office of Professional Responsibility is following its standards, Jordan wrote.
Jordan’s interview request comes after the chairman wrote twice to the DOJ seeking information about two prosecutors on Smith’s team, Jay Bratt and J.P. Cooney, regarding ethics allegations made against both of them.
Bratt’s was raised by an attorney representing Walt Nauta, one of the co-defendants in the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump. The attorney, Stanley Woodward, said in court papers that during a closed-door meeting, Bratt inappropriately brought up Woodward’s application to become a judge while Bratt was seeking Woodward’s compliance in the Trump case. Smith disputed what happened and questioned why Woodward waited several months to express his concern about the meeting.
Cooney, a key figure involved in prosecuting Trump ally Roger Stone for lying to Congress, allegedly said during closed-door discussions about Stone’s sentencing in 2020 that top Trump administration officials were giving Stone preferential treatment by recommending a lighter sentence for him. The DOJ inspector general found this was not a “well considered” move by Cooney but did not refer him to the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility, according to an inspector general report published this year.
Jordan said that Cooney’s conduct “as outlined by the OIG—spreading baseless, politically motivated conspiracy theories during internal Department sentencing deliberations—certainly concerns his professionalism as an attorney and thus appear to fall within OPR’s jurisdiction.”
The interview request from Jordan came the same day Attorney General Merrick Garland took a veiled shot at Republicans for repeatedly bringing attention to longtime career officials in the DOJ, such as Ragsdale, Bratt, and Cooney. Jordan, in particular, has frequently launched public inquiries into various officials’ involvement in high-profile and controversial prosecutions. However, Garland argued these were bad-faith efforts that caused his employees to receive threats.
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“There has been an escalation of attacks on the Justice Department’s career lawyers, agents, and other personnel that go far beyond scrutiny, criticism, and legitimate and necessary oversight of our work,” Garland said. “These attacks have come in the form of conspiracy theories, dangerous falsehoods, efforts to bully and intimidate career public servants by repeatedly and publicly singling them out, and threats of actual violence.”
A DOJ spokeswoman confirmed the department received Jordan’s letter but declined to comment further.
