REPORT: Jack Smith Did Not Review Crucial Records That Dispel Indictment Narrative

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office may not have reviewed thousands of pages of records that were turned over by New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik before seeking an indictment of former President Donald Trump, according to a report from CBS News. The records reportedly contain information that would dispel the DOJ’s narrative that Trump did not believe their claims of election fraud.

Kerik had turned the documents over to Smith’s office on July 23 as part of his investigation into Trump’s objections to the 2020 election. A source close to Kerik’s legal team told CBS that the records contain sworn affidavits from people tied to the election objections that show there was genuine intent to investigate claims of voter fraud.

In an August 2 email to Tim Parlatore, Kerik’s attorney, a prosecutor with Smith’s office requested “responsive documents as to which the Trump campaign is no longer asserting a privilege,” referring to the Kerik records that were previously provided. Parlatore said he was “stunned” when the special counsel’s office inquired about the documents he had already provided after the indictment was handed down.

The attorney told CBS the “records are absolutely exculpatory.”

“They bear directly on the essential element of whether Rudy Giuliani, and therefore Donald Trump, knew that their claims of election fraud were false,” Parlatore said. “Good- faith reliance upon claims of fraud, even if they later turn out to be false, is very different from pushing fraud claims that you know to be false at the time.”

Parlatore previously told CBS News that he expected Kerik to be interviewed by investigators “soon,” but that has not yet happened. Parlatore was among the key lawyers working for Trump in the Justice Department’s investigations, though he left the legal team in May.

A spokesperson for the special counsel declined to comment Thursday when asked if they had reviewed the material.