NEWS: Jack Smith’s Investigative Team Secretly Obtained Text Messages from 44 Members of Congress Amid Trump Probe

NEWS: Jack Smith's Investigative Team Secretly Obtained Text Messages from 44 Members of Congress Amid Trump Probe

Members on both sides of the aisle were swept up in the Special Counsel investigation as Smith's team broke investigative protocol, raising constitutional concerns.

WASHINGTON - Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigative team obtained and reviewed text messages from 44 Members of Congress as part of the Biden Department of Justice's (DOJ) criminal investigation into President Trump. Evidence shows the investigators bypassed a required Filter Team review process, violating investigative protocols and potentially infringing on constitutional guardrails.

The bombshell discovery comes in new records released today by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) as part of their ongoing Arctic Frost oversight. Grassley and Johnson requested the records from DOJ after receiving legally protected whistleblower disclosures.

The Justice Department's letter to the chairmen and the provided records indicate Smith's investigative team circumvented its own filter review process, which was established to protect privileged materials from being swept up in a criminal prosecution, and directly accessed the content of texts sent by Republican and Democrat senators and members of the House of Representatives to White House officials during Trump's first term. Communications from Members of Congress pertaining to their official legislative duties are protected from criminal prosecution under the Constitution's Speech or Debate Clause. Bypassing a Filter Team evades consideration of additional privileges, such as attorney-client privilege.

Both Grassley and Johnson's text messages were obtained by Smith's team.

"Jack Smith's criminal investigation of President Trump was a runaway train that had no brakes. Based on the information that's been produced to me and Senator Johnson, Biden DOJ and FBI investigators apparently ignored their own routine investigative protocols to obtain and review work-related messages from me and dozens of my Republican and Democrat colleagues who were outside the scope of the government's investigation," Grassley said. "I hope my Democrat colleagues, several of whom had their own texts swept up, finally put partisanship aside and recognize the severity of these actions. Smith's team ran roughshod over the Constitution even after repeated warnings. Jack Smith has answering to do, and I intend to have him before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the coming months to hold him accountable."

"This is yet another grotesque example of the Biden administration's weaponization of the Justice Department," Johnson said. "Jack Smith's team acted with impunity as they disregarded their own protocols to obtain and access White House text messages, including messages to and from 44 Members of Congress. At this point, no one should be shocked by Jack Smith's recklessness and blatant abuse of power, but they should be outraged."

Read DOJ's summary of the records HERE and access the records HERE.

Background:
The records, as summarized in a DOJ cover letter, provide evidence the Biden Justice Department "established a Filter Team to evaluate materials obtained in the course of both Jack Smith's investigation relating to January 6 (referred to as 'Project Coconut') and his Mar-a-Lago documents investigation (referred to as 'Project Cranberry'). The Filter Team's purpose was to prevent investigators from the Special Counsel's Office and the FBI ('Investigative Team') from accessing privileged materials among the records obtained during the course of these investigations." The DOJ letter further states "the Special Counsel's Investigative Team apparently bypassed the Filter Team and directly accessed these text messages," in reference to Members' communications.

In June 2023, the Special Counsel's Office (SCO) subpoenaed the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to provide all text messages from October 2020 through January 20, 2021, from phones associated with a long list of personnel serving in the White House during President Trump's first term, including Trump himself as well as: Mark Meadows, Dan Scavino, Ivanka Trump, Stephen Miller, Peter Navarro, John Ratcliffe, Kash Patel, Rudy Giuliani, Kellyanne Conway and Mike Pence.

NARA provided the texts to SCO on August 21, 2023. Within half an hour, one of Smith's senior lawyers, Thomas Windom, downloaded the texts and, within one hour, other members of Smith's investigative team downloaded and began reviewing the texts. It appears the review was done without waiting for the Filter Team to evaluate and segregate privileged information.

Smith's team accessed texts to and from the following current and former senators and members of the House of Representatives:

1. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)
2. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.)
3. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas)
4. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)
5. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.)
6. Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah)
7. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.)
8. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.)
9. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska)
10. Senator David Perdue (R-Ga.)
11. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.)
12. Senator Martha McSally (R-Ariz.)
13. Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.)
14. Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.)
15. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio)
16. Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.)
17. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine)
18. Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.)
19. Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.)
20. Senator Cory Gardner (R-Colo.)
21. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)
22. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.)
23. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio)
24. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.)
25. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.)
26. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.)
27. Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.)
28. Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.)
29. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.)
30. Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.)
31. Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.)
32. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.)
33. Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.)
34. Rep. Joshua Gottheimer (D-N.J.)
35. Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.)
36. Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.)
37. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.)
38. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.)
39. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.)
40. Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.)
41. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.)
42. Rep. Russ Fulcher (R-Idaho)
43. Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.)
44. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.)

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