A fresh batch of Justice Department paperwork has thrust Jack Smith’s defunct special counsel operation back into the spotlight, this time over allegations that his team quietly read private text messages belonging to dozens of sitting and former lawmakers.
The records suggest the review happened without clearance from a safeguard team specifically built to keep prosecutors away from privileged material.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Ron Johnson brought the documents to light Tuesday.
The pair secured the paperwork after whistleblowers came forward with information tied to the sprawling federal investigation nicknamed Arctic Frost.
Forty-four members of Congress had their message contents examined, according to the records, with the roster leaning Republican but including several Democrats as well.
Names on the Senate side include Grassley himself, Ron Johnson, Josh Hawley, and the late Lindsey Graham, alongside Democrat Cory Booker.
On the House side, Republican Jim Jordan appears next to Democrats Adam Smith and Josh Gottheimer. Also included is former Rep. Karen Bass, who currently serves as Los Angeles’s Democratic mayor.
Grassley broke the news of his own inclusion directly to the public.
“I received records [from] DOJ confirming Jack Smith’s investigative team reviewed the contents of text [messages] sent by 44 members of Congress,” he posted on social media platform X. “I’m one of the 44.”
This particular batch of records marks a departure from earlier revelations. Previous disclosures centered on subpoenas for lawmakers’ phone metadata alone.
These newer documents, by contrast, involve the actual substance of messages pulled from devices used inside the first Trump White House.
Rather than going through lawmakers themselves or their phone carriers, investigators retrieved the material through the National Archives and Records Administration.
Prosecutors working under Smith sought messages spanning October 2020 through Jan. 20, 2021.
Their request targeted phones belonging to Donald Trump and a lengthy roster of top aides: Mark Meadows, Dan Scavino, Ivanka Trump, Stephen Miller, Peter Navarro, John Ratcliffe, Kash Patel, Rudy Giuliani, Kellyanne Conway, and Mike Pence.
A timeline buried in the paperwork shows just how quickly the material changed hands.
National Archives General Counsel Gary Stern notified senior prosecutor Thomas Windom shortly after noon on Aug. 21, 2023, that 54 spreadsheets holding the requested messages had been located. Windom had already downloaded everything within half an hour.
Barely twenty minutes after that, he was sharing specific excerpts with colleagues, while other staffers arranged for the files to move into shared storage and the team’s review platform.
DOJ investigators later acknowledged the irregularity in writing. A four-page summary of the department’s findings concluded that Smith’s team “apparently bypassed the Filter Team and directly accessed these text messages.”
That finding stands in tension with written protocols also included in the document release, which required a filter attorney’s sign-off before any material could be accessed.
Complicating matters further, a June 11, 2023, internal email revealed a software glitch that let investigators peek at certain search-warrant material before official review had wrapped up.
Fixing that permissions error was flagged internally as “the top priority item.”
Grassley didn’t hold back in his reaction to the findings. “Jack Smith’s criminal investigation of President Trump was a runaway train that had no brakes,” he said.
Johnson offered an equally pointed assessment, calling the situation “yet another grotesque example of the Biden administration’s weaponization of the Justice Department.”
Gaps remain in what the public can actually see. Numerous phone numbers, names, and chunks of message content are blacked out throughout the released files.
The count of 44 affected lawmakers comes from the DOJ’s own internal assessment rather than a complete, unredacted public record.
The timing revives questions about Smith’s sworn testimony from Dec. 17, 2025, when he appeared before the House Judiciary Committee and denied that his team had ever read the contents of congressional text messages.
Pressed on whether his office pursued a warrant for the content of lawmakers’ texts, Smith replied, “No, I don’t recall that.” He maintained that investigators had collected “just toll records.”
A follow-up question asked point-blank whether those toll records included any text-message content.
“No,” Smith answered, noting that toll records only capture details like phone numbers and the timing and length of calls, not message substance.
The Washington Examiner sought comment from an attorney representing Smith. No response was provided.
