DOJ Letter Says Jack Smith's Team Skipped Privilege Filter Before Accessing 44 Lawmakers' Texts, Grassley Vows Hearing

Since Senate Republicans first surfaced Jack Smith's use of subpoenas against congressional phone records under Operation Arctic Frost, the story has moved from call logs to actual message content. The new detail, disclosed Tuesday, July 14, is that Smith's investigative team accessed the text messages themselves, not just records of who called whom, and did so for 44 sitting and former members of Congress.

The documents come from a letter Assistant Attorney General Patrick Davis sent to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI). Davis wrote that Smith's team "apparently bypassed the Filter Team and directly accessed these text messages," according to the Daily Wire and the Daily Signal, both of which reviewed the letter.

The Justice Department maintains a filter review process specifically to keep privileged material, like attorney-client communications or protected legislative activity under the Constitution's Speech or Debate Clause, out of the hands of prosecutors before it's screened. That process exists precisely because Congress and the executive branch operate under separation of powers, and it's supposed to apply whether the target is a Republican or a Democrat.

Of the 44 lawmakers whose texts were reviewed, 40 were Republicans and four were Democrats, according to the Daily Signal and Grassley's own office. The GOP list includes Grassley, Johnson, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sen. Josh Hawley, Sen. Mike Lee, Sen. Rand Paul, Sen. Tim Scott, Sen. Tom Cotton, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Rep. Steve Scalise, Rep. Jim Jordan, Rep. Elise Stefanik, Rep. Scott Perry, and Rep. Thomas Massie. The Democrats named are Sen. Cory Booker, Rep. Adam Smith, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, and former Rep. Karen Bass, now mayor of Los Angeles.

The Independent adds that the underlying record pull also swept in communications from Mark Meadows, Trump's White House chief of staff, and Mike Pence, the vice president who refused to block certification of the 2020 election. Those records were tied to a National Archives subpoena covering October 2020 through January 2021, as prosecutors examined Trump's push to reverse his election loss.

Grassley called the operation "a runaway train that had no brakes" in a statement carried by Grassley's Senate office, the Daily Wire, and the Daily Signal. He said DOJ and FBI investigators "apparently ignored their own routine investigative protocols" and said he intends to bring Smith before the Judiciary Committee "in the coming months" to testify. Grassley made similar remarks Wednesday morning during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing involving Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, per the Daily Signal.

Johnson went further, calling it "yet another grotesque example of the Biden administration's weaponization of the Justice Department" and accusing Smith's team of acting "with impunity."

Other Republicans piled on publicly. Rand Paul wrote on X that he was "spied on," calling it "a blatant abuse of power." Josh Hawley posted, "Looks like perjury." Mike Lee wrote that Smith "spied on me and several other senators. Then he lied about it." These posts, cited by Newsweek, each drew over a million views.

The filter team was bypassed and message content from 44 lawmakers was accessed, per DOJ's own letter. What has not been established in any of these records is criminal intent, a violation charge, or a formal ethics finding against Smith personally. No indictment, no bar complaint outcome, and no announced DOJ or congressional investigation into Smith individually has been confirmed in these disclosures. Hawley's "perjury" claim is a political accusation, not a charge.

Newsweek notes that Democrats and defenders of Smith's work argue the investigations were rooted in evidence from the 2020 election dispute and the January 6 Capitol riot, and were conducted independently of White House influence under standard DOJ procedures. A spokesperson for Smith did not respond to Newsweek's request for comment, and Smith has previously testified before the House Judiciary Committee this year defending his conduct as consistent with department policy.

The filter-team bypass is also a legitimate process concern independent of politics. If the safeguard exists because Congress and the executive are constitutionally separate branches, and that safeguard was skipped for four Democrats too, it's not simply a partisan targeting story. It's a question about whether DOJ's internal controls functioned as designed, regardless of who ends up scrutinizing them.

Grassley says a hearing is coming. Whether Smith appears voluntarily, and whether DOJ or an inspector general opens any formal review of how the filter process broke down, remains unresolved as of this week.