Jack Smith’s ‘Arctic Frost’ team spied on lawmakers’ texts without shielding privileged info

Newly released records show that investigators working for former special counsel Jack Smith directly accessed text messages belonging to 44 current and former members of Congress.

Mr. Smith’s investigators bypassed a “Filter Team” process meant to screen out privileged material before investigators could see it, said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley and Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Ron Johnson.

The two Republican senators made the records public on Tuesday.

The Justice Department provided the records to senators who are conducting a review of the FBI’s “Arctic Frost” investigation into challenges to the 2020 presidential election.

According to a Justice Department cover letter summarizing the material, the department had set up a Filter Team to review records gathered in Mr. Smith’s Jan. 6-related investigation known as “Project Coconut” and his Mar-a-Lago documents case known as “Project Cranberry.”

The team’s job was to keep the special counsel’s investigative staff and the FBI from seeing privileged material swept up in those probes.

However, Mr. Smith’s investigative team “apparently bypassed the Filter Team and directly accessed” text messages involving members of Congress — a process that, if accurate, would have skipped review not only for executive privilege but also for other protections, including attorney-client privilege and the Constitution’s speech or debate clause that shields lawmakers’ communications about their legislative duties from criminal scrutiny.

Mr. Grassley called the episode further evidence that Mr. Smith’s investigation operated without adequate constraints, saying Biden-era DOJ and FBI investigators “ignored their own routine investigative protocols” to obtain messages from lawmakers who were outside the scope of the inquiry.

He said he plans to bring Mr. Smith before the Judiciary Committee to answer questions about the matter and urged Democratic colleagues whose communications were also affected to treat the issue as a shared, bipartisan concern rather than a partisan one.

“Jack Smith’s criminal investigation of President Trump was a runaway train that had no brakes,” Mr. Grassley said. “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.”

Mr. Johnson described the episode as part of a broader pattern of Justice Department overreach under President Biden, saying Mr. Smith’s team “acted with impunity.”

“This is yet another grotesque example of the Biden administration’s weaponization of the Justice Department,” Mr. Johnson said.

The records indicate the impacted communications involved both parties. Mr. Grassley and Mr. Johnson said their own texts were among those swept up, along with those of 18 other sitting or former senators and 24 House members.

In June 2023, Mr. Smith’s office subpoenaed the National Archives and Records Administration for text messages sent between October 2020 and January 20, 2021, from phones tied to Trump’s White House personnel from his first term.

This included President Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Dan Scavino, Ivanka Trump, Stephen Miller, Peter Navarro, John Ratcliffe, Kash Patel, Rudy Giuliani and Kellyanne Conway.

On Aug. 21, 2023, NARA turned the texts over to the special counsel’s office. The records showed that within about 30 minutes, Senior Special Counsel Office Attorney Thomas Windom had downloaded the material, and other team members began reviewing it within the hour — apparently before the Filter Team completed a screening.

Thirty-three Republicans and three Democrats were among the lawmakers impacted.

Republican senators named included John Cornyn of Texas, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Mike Lee of Utah, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Rick Scott of Florida, Susan Collins of Maine, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and Tom Cotton of Arkansas.

Republican House members named include Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, Dan Newhouse of Washington, Dusty Johnson of South Dakota, Elise Stefanik of New York, Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, Morgan Griffith of Virginia, Russ Fulcher of Idaho, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Thomas Massie of Kentucky.

Democrats named are Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington and former Rep. Karen Bass of California.

The disclosure is the latest in a series of document releases tied to the senators’ “Arctic Frost” oversight investigation.

The investigation previously focused on subpoenas for lawmakers’ phone records.

Mr. Smith’s office has defended its methods, telling Congress that gathering records — including metadata — was a standard part of investigating a complex conspiracy.