Sen. Chuck Grassley alleges DOJ and special counsel Jack Smith illegally accessed congressional texts

Senators Chuck Grassley (R‑IA) and Ron Johnson (R‑WI) released Department of Justice records showing that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigative team obtained and reviewed text messages from 44 members of Congress. The messages, spanning October 2020 to January 2021, were retrieved after a June 2023 subpoena to the National Archives. Smith’s team bypassed the required Filter Team review that protects privileged communications, directly downloading the contents within an hour. The collection included both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, with names such as Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley, Kevin McCarthy and Jim Jordan cited.

Grassley also used the occasion to accuse Democrats of weaponizing the Justice Department, defending acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination. He claimed the Biden administration shifted prosecutorial focus from child‑predator cases to Jan. 6 protests and highlighted a range of crime‑statistics improvements he attributes to the DOJ under the Trump era. Grassley framed the text‑message review as a constitutional breach and called for Senate oversight of Smith’s actions.