WATCH: Smith explains why he approved subpoenas for GOP lawmakers' phone records

By PBS NewsHour

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Former special counsel Jack Smith said Tuesday that he approved the subpoena of telephone records for certain members of Congress during his investigation into President Donald Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack. Smith said the toll records he secured show to whom and from whom a call was made, as well as the length of the call. They do not contain the contents of the call. Before subpoenaing third-party phone companies, Smith said he consulted the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section to ensure they were appropriate. “Those records were materially relevant to our investigation,” Smith told Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Those records corroborated evidence that we had that the president, President Donald Trump, and his co-conspirators were seeking to exploit the violence on Jan. 6 in furtherance of their criminal scheme,” Smith said. The hearing is the career prosecutor’s second public appearance before the Republican-led C

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