Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team spied on 44 Republican members of Congress during the Biden DOJ’s Arctic Frost investigation — then Smith lied about it under oath.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) released the bombshell documents Tuesday after receiving legally protected whistleblower disclosures.
The newly obtained evidence shows Smith’s prosecutors obtained and reviewed text messages from dozens of mostly Republican lawmakers as part of the sham criminal investigation into President Trump.
Smith’s team bypassed the required Filter Team review process — despite prior warnings from Justice Department attorneys — to access communications between Trump White House personnel and lawmakers.
The filter review process exists to protect privileged materials from being swept up in criminal prosecutions. Smith’s senior attorney Thomas Windom and others ignored it.
The documents reveal Windom downloaded the texts within half an hour of receipt on August 21, 2023. Within one hour, other members of Smith’s investigative team downloaded and began reviewing the communications — without waiting for the Filter Team to evaluate and segregate privileged information.
The subpoena targeted text messages from October 2020 through January 20, 2021, from phones associated with Trump White House personnel, including Trump himself, Mark Meadows, Dan Scavino, Ivanka Trump, Stephen Miller, Peter Navarro, John Ratcliffe, Kash Patel, Rudy Giuliani, Kellyanne Conway, and Mike Pence.
Smith initially claimed only broad toll records were requested and the content of those records were not accessed.
He swore under oath in December 2025 that he did not access the content of text messages belonging to members of Congress.
Lying under oath to Congress is a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine.
“Jack Smith’s criminal investigation of President Trump was a runaway train that had no brakes,” Grassley said.
Grassley called out Smith’s team for running “roughshod over the Constitution even after repeated warnings.”
“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,” the chairman stated.
Johnson called it “yet another grotesque example of the Biden administration’s weaponization of the Justice Department.”
“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,” Johnson said.
House Judiciary Committee released 200 pages of documents in October 2025 revealing that more than 150 Republicans, including many current Trump administration officials, were targeted during the Arctic Frost investigation.
Smith’s team accessed texts to and from senators Chuck Grassley, Ron Johnson, John Cornyn, Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Tim Scott, Tom Cotton, and Cory Booker, along with House members Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan, Devin Nunes, Elise Stefanik, Scott Perry, Thomas Massie, and Mo Brooks, among others.
Joe Biden issued preemptive pardons to several officials, including Anthony Fauci, Mark Milley, and members of the House January 6 committee.
Jack Smith was conspicuously absent from the list.
Grassley plans to haul Smith before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the coming months.
December 2025: Jack Smith swore under oath that he didn't spy on text messages belonging to members of Congress.
Today: New evidence confirms he spied on dozens of members of Congress, myself included.
This is a blatant abuse of power, and exactly what our Founders warned… pic.twitter.com/3eqwiylLXI
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 14, 2026
