Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman is warning that Republicans may be setting a “perjury trap for former special counsel Jack Smith. The reason? Retaliation for Smith’s investigations into President Donald Trump.
Speaking to MSNBC on Monday, Akerman, a former assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, said it’s clear Smith is refusing to testify to Congress unless it’s done publicly.
A recent ABC News report revealed that Smith had notes taken by former Vice President Mike Pence “hastily scribbled” on a “day planner” that he intended to use as evidence if the Jan. 6 case had gone to trial.
“It would have been a real ‘Perry Mason’ moment,” Akerman said, referencing the classic 1950s TV legal drama, underscoring how significant those notes could have been in court.
Host Ana Cabrera asked whether the Trump administration might weaponize the Justice Department to go after the former special counsel next.
“There’s not much to stop it,” Akerman said, but he emphasized that Smith is handling the situation carefully.
Akerman explained that Smith sent a letter to the DOJ asking what he could testify to “so that he doesn’t violate grand jury secrecy and other matters that are still confidential.” He added that Smith is “being very careful about it.”
The stakes, Akerman warned, are high. “What they’re trying to do is set him up for a perjury crime,” he said. “If they put him behind closed doors, [and] ask him a bunch of questions, they’ll do what they did to Jim Comey,” referring to the former FBI director now under indictment for allegedly lying to Congress.
“They pick and choose certain selective pieces of testimony and claim it’s perjurious. That’s what they’re looking to do, so that’s why Jack Smith is very smart in asking that it all be done in public.”
In short, Smith’s insistence on transparency isn’t just caution—it may be his only safeguard against a political trap designed to ensnare him.
Watch the segment below:
