WATCH LIVE: Trump departs Miami hotel en route to federal courthouse
The former president faces a judge in Miami federal court over classified docs probe.
FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Matt Gaetz, R- Fla., sent a letter Tuesday to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding information on the office of special counsel Jack Smith, revealing that one of the prosecutors on his team investigating Trump for his alleged mishandling of classified documents previously contributed to President Biden's 2020 campaign and faced misconduct allegations in 2009.
Trump is in Miami where he is scheduled to appear at 3PM ET before a federal court after being indicted on 37 counts stemming from Smith’s investigation, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements.
Gaetz is demanding that the names of all the people working on the case in Smith’s office be made public.
The congressman claimed in his letter that Smith’s past work "is both highly irregular and of extraordinary public concern," specifically "how his office is structured," and is giving Garland until July 7 to cough up "all staff rosters, phone lists, or similar records, within the custody or control of the Department of Justice, depicting all employees hired by or detailed to the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith."
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R- Fla., left, and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, right. (Fox News)
NEARLY HALF THE COUNTRY SUPPORTS TRUMP FEDERAL INDICTMENT, BUT BELIEVES POLITICS WERE INVOLVED
Gaetz said it is "beyond debate" that such information should be available to the public, and that "this simple staff list cannot be withheld from Congress or the public on the basis of attenuated and entirely fantastic privacy concerns."
Gaetz pointed out that one of Smith’s deputies who has been named, Karen Gilbert, resigned in 2009 from her position as head of the narcotics section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida after alleged misconduct, which prompted an apology at the time from the DOJ.
US Republican Representative Matt Gaetz, from Florida, speaks at a 2024 campaign rally for former US President Donald Trump in Waco, Texas, March 25, 2023. (SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty Images)
Federal Election Commission records also show that Gilbert has donated over $2,000 to the former campaigns of President Biden and former President Barack Obama.
In his letter, Gaetz threatened to take congressional action to defund Smith’s office.
"While there are innumerable valid legislative purposes for this request, it should be obvious that doing due diligence in vetting an office that has apparently done no vetting of its own personnel, or worse, might affirmatively be seeking to staff with sanctioned lawyers and partisan hatchet-men (and women), is an entirely appropriate purpose and one small reason I am requesting this information," Gaetz wrote.
"The 118th Congress has procedural tools in place to allow for targeted recission of funds from components or subcomponents of agencies that are not operating in the public interest," he added.
Gaetz’s letter came the same day Trump is scheduled to be arraigned in Miami.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, announced Monday she will introduce a measure to remove funding for Smith’s office and his investigation into Trump
"Today, I'd like to announce that I'm writing an appropriations rider to defund Jack Smith, special counsel, his office and the investigation," Greene said Monday on the House Floor. "This is a weaponized government attempt to take down the top political enemy and leading presidential candidate of the United States, Donald J. Trump."
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, during a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, April 18, 2023. (Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Gaetz previously expressed support for Greene's proposal.
"This is an Article I flex! I’m so here for it," he wrote on Twitter.
Judicial Watch announced last week that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the DOJ to obtain records disclosing the names of the staffers working on Trump’s case. The DOJ previously refused to disclose the names, claiming it would "constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy," Judicial Watch said.
The Trump campaign has been highlighting past reports about Smith and his staffers who have so far been revealed to be working on the case in an effort to damage their credibility.
Republican presidential candidate former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives at the Miami International Airport June 12, 2023 in Miami, Florida. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
On Friday, the campaign pushed out a Nov. 22, 2022 report by the Washington Examiner saying Smith, while leading the Justice Department's public integrity unit, played an "instrumental" role in the Lois Lerner IRS scandal targeting conservative nonprofit groups.
Meanwhile, Jay Bratt, who is working on the Trump case in Smith’s office, according to reports, was recently accused of misconduct by an attorney representing one of Trump’s personal assistants, Walt Nauta, who was also indicted in the classified documents case.
Meanwhile, Gilbert, another local prosecutor working on Smith’s team, in 2009 voluntarily stepped down from her post in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2009 to avoid stiff penalties for allegedly eavesdropping on recorded phone conversations between witnesses and the defense attorney in a narcotics case.
Members of the media outside an evacuated area at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. United States Courthouse in Miami, Florida, US, on Tuesday, June 13, 2023. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Demonstrators rally outside of the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse ahead of former President Donald Trump’s arraignment in Miami, Florida on Tuesday, June 13, 2023. (Mega for Fox News Digital)
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"It's no surprise that the bogus indictment of President Trump is coming from far-left prosecutors Jack Smith and Karen Gilbert," Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Trump super PAC Make America Great Again Inc., told Fox News Digital. "Smith has a long history of trying to use the courts to target conservatives and Gilbert has a record of unethical misconduct. Every American deserves to know who else is working on their team, as they are interfering in the 2024 election."
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida declined to comment beyond Smith's statement last week, pointing Fox News Digital to his specific line: "The prosecutors in my office are among the most talented and experienced in the Department of Justice. They have investigated this case hewing to the highest ethical standards. And they will continue to do so as this case proceeds."
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