Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI) on Tuesday released Department of Justice records detailing that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigative team obtained and reviewed text message contents involving 44 members of Congress.
The records pertain to the Arctic Frost investigation, the FBI probe into efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election results that was later transferred to Smith’s office in November 2022.
The messages originated from a June 2023 subpoena issued by Smith’s office to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The subpoena sought text messages from October 2020 through January 20, 2021, from phones associated with White House personnel during President Trump’s first term, including Trump, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and others.
NARA provided the materials on August 21, 2023. Within approximately 30 minutes, senior lawyer Thomas Windom on Smith’s team downloaded the texts. Within one hour, additional team members downloaded and began reviewing them.
According to a DOJ cover letter accompanying the records, Smith’s investigative team bypassed the required Filter Team review process. This process was designed to evaluate materials for privileged information, such as communications protected under the Speech or Debate Clause for members of Congress or attorney-client privilege, before providing access to investigators.
The records indicate the team directly accessed the content without awaiting Filter Team segregation.
The 44 members of Congress whose communications were included encompass both current and former senators and House representatives from both parties. This includes approximately 20 senators and 24 House members.
Prominent names among them include Senators Grassley, Johnson, Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley, Rand Paul, John Cornyn, and Mike Lee, as well as Representatives Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Thomas Massie and others.
“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 following the latest release.
“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.”
These records contradict prior testimony by Smith under oath before the House Judiciary Committee, in which he stated that his team had not requested or reviewed such messages.
🚨TAKE A LOOK🚨
The DOJ has confirmed that Jack Smith’s investigative team reviewed the contents of text messages sent by 44 members of Congress.
Oddly enough, Democrats, like Senator Cory Booker and Karen Bass made the list. pic.twitter.com/e3StT9mcqg
— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) July 14, 2026
Tuesday’s release builds on earlier disclosures from the Arctic Frost investigation. In October 2025, Grassley released an FBI document showing that the FBI obtained “tolling data” — metadata including dates, times, durations, phone numbers contacted, and general location information for calls and texts, but not message contents — from the personal cell phones of eight Republican senators and one Republican House member.
The senators included Lindsey Graham, Bill Hagerty, Josh Hawley, Dan Sullivan, Tommy Tuberville, Ron Johnson, Cynthia Lummis, and Marsha Blackburn; the House member was Mike Kelly. Smith’s team had also created a “wish list” of 14 members of Congress for potential tolling data subpoenas.
Subsequent releases indicated that Smith’s office obtained call logs for at least 10 Republican lawmakers and sought phone records for additional members of Congress. No records indicate that individuals outside Congress had their personal text message contents reviewed through the same NARA White House production and filter bypass process.
However, the broader Arctic Frost investigation issued at least 197 grand jury subpoenas seeking records related to approximately 430 Republican individuals and entities, many of whom were outside Congress. These included private citizens, Trump associates, and organizations connected to post-election activities.
Smith’s investigations have long been described as “fishing expeditions,” in which his team would pick targets and search for ways to build criminal cases rather than investigating allegations of criminal wrongdoing outright.
