Key facts
- Special Counsel Jack Smith's team reviewed text messages from 44 members of Congress.
- The texts were obtained via subpoenas to the National Archives.
- The lawmakers included 40 Republicans and four Democrats.
- The investigations concerned efforts to overturn the 2020 election and alleged mishandling of classified documents.
- Senator Chuck Grassley stated his intention to hold Jack Smith accountable.
- Grassley alleged a prosecutor may have improperly viewed records before a legal privilege screening.
Special Counsel Jack Smith's team reviewed text messages from 44 Republican and Democratic members of Congress as part of investigations into President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his alleged mishandling of classified documents. The records were obtained through subpoenas to the National Archives for text messages from government phones used by Trump and his top officials from October 2020 to January 2021.
According to Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson, the obtained texts included communications between Trump officials and 40 Republican lawmakers, as well as four Democrats. These investigations examined numerous senior government figures, including former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and then-Vice President Mike Pence, who resisted Trump's pressure to block the certification of the 2020 election results. Both cases were reportedly dropped after Trump won the 2024 election.
Senator Grassley has stated his intention to hold Jack Smith accountable and bring him before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He also alleged that a prosecutor on Smith's team may have violated Justice Department protocol by viewing the records before a separate team screened them for legal privileges. Smith's office has maintained that the investigations followed department policy and were not politically motivated.
This development follows previous revelations that Smith's team had obtained call logs from some Republican senators and phone records of FBI Director Kash Patel and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles as part of the classified documents probe. Subpoenaing phone records is a standard investigative procedure.