PolitiFact | Lamar Smith

The Poynter Institute

Stand up for facts and support PolitiFact.

Now is your chance to go on the record as supporting trusted, factual information by joining PolitiFact’s Truth Squad. Contributions or gifts to PolitiFact, which is part of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Poynter Institute, are tax deductible.

I would like to contribute

Lamar Smith is a Republican congressman from a San Antonio-based district in Texas. He became chairman of the House Judiciary Committee in January 2011.

True

0%

Mostly True

18%

Half True

0%

Mostly False

0%

False

0%

Pants on Fire

0%

Lamar Smith
stated on September 18, 2017 in a letter to a constituent :

"The average tax bill for Americans in 2016 was a 41 percent increase from 2013."

By Louis Jacobson • September 29, 2017
Lamar Smith
stated on November 9, 2016 in a web post and email blast:

"I was the first member of Congress to contribute to Donald Trump."

By W. Gardner Selby • November 11, 2016
Lamar Smith
stated on July 19, 2016 in remarks to the Texas delegation to the Republican National Convention:

"One third of all federal prisoners today are illegal immigrants."

By W. Gardner Selby • August 25, 2016
Lamar Smith
stated on December 6, 2015 in Op-ed column in the San Antonio Express-News:

"The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has estimated that the Obama administration’s Power Plan will cause energy costs in Texas to rise as much as 16 percent per year."

By Filipa Ioannou • December 17, 2015
Lamar Smith
stated on May 31, 2014 in a letter to the editor of the San Antonio Express-News:

"Last year," Obama "administration officials released into our neighborhoods more than 36,000 criminal immigrants who had nearly 88,000 convictions. The crimes included hundreds of convictions for murder, rape and kidnapping and thousands of drug-related crimes."

By W. Gardner Selby • June 10, 2014

Matt McCall
stated on February 11, 2016 in Press release:

"During three and a half years of campaigning," Lamar Smith "has never once appeared at a moderated debate to defend his positions on the issues."

By Filipa Ioannou • March 28, 2016
Texas Liberty PAC
stated on February 22, 2014 in a sign spotted outside a polling place in Austin:

Says Lamar Smith "sponsored the bill that funded Obamacare."

By W. Gardner Selby • February 27, 2014
Lainey Melnick
stated on April 23, 2010 in an e-mail blast:

Says U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith supported the $700 billion Wall Street bailout in 2008, "but now he is standing in the way of reforms that would assure these bailouts would never happen again."

By W. Gardner Selby • May 18, 2010

Fact-checking journalism is the heart of PolitiFact. Our core principles are independence, transparency, fairness, thorough reporting and clear writing. The reason we publish is to give citizens the information they need to govern themselves in a democracy.

In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts.