Jack Smith, the former special counsel, asked the Justice Department on Monday to detail what he is allowed to tell Congress about investigating President Trump, after Republicans accused some of his former staff of hiding behind grand jury secrecy rules.
In a letter, lawyers for Mr. Smith, Lanny A. Breuer and Peter Koski, said that he “respectfully requests guidance” about what is off limits because of grand jury secrecy rules, which do not allow certain information to be divulged.
The exchange is part of a back-and-forth over whether Mr. Smith will appear before the House Judiciary Committee to testify. The panel’s Republican chairman, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, has also accused Mr. Smith’s former deputies of refusing to answer dozens of the committee’s questions by citing grand jury secrecy.
Government lawyers are prohibited from disclosing information presented to, or about, grand jury investigations like the ones that resulted in two indictments of Mr. Trump. In his letter, Mr. Smith appears to be asking the Justice Department and the Trump administration to draw a clear line for what he can and cannot discuss with Congress.
The letter also asks the administration to outline what he cannot discuss as a result of confidentiality rules, classified information or open investigations, as well as the still-sealed special counsel report about the investigation into Mr. Trump’s handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Mr. Smith also asked that the Justice Department allow him to review the report, since he left the job more than nine months ago.
“Access to the special counsel files is necessary for Mr. Smith to provide precise, complete and accurate answers to questions from the committee,” his lawyers wrote.
Devlin Barrett covers the Justice Department and the F.B.I. for The Times.
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