The Biden Justice Department’s pursuit of President Donald Trump is facing fresh scrutiny after newly released materials showed former special counsel Jack Smith’s team accessed text messages to or from 44 members of Congress before a DOJ filter team had completed its privilege review — as well as other revelations that call into question the tactics Smith used to prosecute Trump.The disclosure, released Tuesday by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), revived Republican scrutiny that Smith’s office disregarded protocol while investigating Trump, and it prompted a rare expression of concern from a Democratic senator.“I think we need to have more facts. Look into it. Republicans are rightly concerned about the possible breach of norms and improper access to email,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told Fox News on Wednesday.
The materials show that on Aug. 21, 2023, the National Archives and Records Administration provided Smith prosecutor Thomas Windom access to spreadsheets containing text message content involving lawmakers and White House personnel. Windom downloaded the material, and other members of Smith’s investigative team began downloading it within an hour, according to the materials released by Grassley.Accompanying the Tuesday release was a Trump DOJ letter to Grassley that said Smith’s office “apparently bypassed” a filter team that was supposed to screen the NARA materials for attorney-client and work-product privilege before prosecutors assigned to the Trump investigation gained access.That detail is at the center of the most recent controversy. The DOJ’s filter team was supposed to act as a firewall between potentially privileged communications and the prosecutors building the case against Trump. If Smith’s team accessed the messages before screening was completed, his investigators may have seen material that should have been withheld, segregated, or subjected to further legal review before prosecutors could use it, raising additional separation-of-powers concerns because members of Congress had their communications secretly accessed.The disclosure comes as the DOJ continues to face questions about how the Biden administration’s Arctic Frost investigation — which then-Attorney General Merrick Garland later placed under Smith’s authority — aggressively collected sensitive material while pursuing Trump and his allies.Smith’s text collections came one month before receipt of phone toll data
