Former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigative team reviewed White House records of text messages involving 44 current and former members of Congress after apparently bypassing a team established to screen potentially privileged material, according to newly released Justice Department records.The communications reviewed under the Biden administration’s DOJ involved mostly Republicans and a handful of Democrats, including Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), the late Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Josh Hawley (R-MO). House members included Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Adam Smith (D-WA), and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), as well as former Rep. Karen Bass, now the Democratic mayor of Los Angeles.
I received records frm DOJ confirming Jack Smith's investigative team reviewed the contents of text msgs sent by 44 MEMBERS OF CONGRESS Im 1 of the 44 Im alerting my colleagues who were impacted and will release the records w Sen Johnson so American ppl can see the evidence— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) July 14, 2026
“I received records [from] DOJ confirming Jack Smith’s investigative team reviewed the contents of text [messages] sent by 44 members of Congress,” Grassley wrote on X. “I’m one of the 44.”Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released the records Tuesday with Johnson, who leads the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The senators obtained the material following whistleblower disclosures about the federal investigation known as Arctic Frost.Unlike previously disclosed subpoenas for lawmakers’ telephone metadata, the latest records concern the contents of messages stored on phones used by officials in the first Trump White House. Investigators acquired the messages from the National Archives and Records Administration, not directly from lawmakers’ devices or telephone carriers.Smith’s office requested messages sent between October 2020 and Jan. 20, 2021, from phones associated with President Donald Trump and numerous senior advisers, including former chief of staff Mark Meadows, former deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, daughter Ivanka Trump, deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, counselor Peter Navarro, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, FBI Director Kash Patel, former lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former senior counselor Kellyanne Conway, and former Vice President Mike Pence.At 12:19 p.m. on Aug. 21, 2023, National Archives General Counsel Gary Stern informed senior prosecutor Thomas Windom that the agency had identified 54 spreadsheets containing the requested custodians’ messages.An Aug. 21, 2023, email chain shows senior prosecutor Thomas Windom telling colleagues that he had already downloaded the National Archives’ White House text-message production and asking FBI investigators to download it as well. (U.S. Department of Justice records released by Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson)
