Senate Judiciary Chair Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) revealed former Special Counsel Jack Smith obtained text messages 44 members of Congress sent to senior White House officials during the final weeks of President Donald Trump’s first term.
The latest exchanges were part of materials the National Archives turned over to Smith’s team following a subpoena for White House records stretching from October 2020 to January 2021.
Smith’s top deputies received the records in August 2023 after getting a grand jury indictment against Trump.
According to internal emails Grassley released Tuesday, they were preparing to share them with Trump’s legal team as part of the pre-trial “discovery process.”
Grassley’s release of these materials is part of an effort by Grassley and other Trump allies to portray Smith as a reckless, overaggressive prosecutor in his pursuit of criminal cases against Trump.
Grassley was already after Smith after learning investigators obtained call records of several Republican lawmakers as part of Smith’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election.
This move resulted
in the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021.
“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,” Grassley said.
A spokesman for Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Smith testified to the House Judiciary Committee both privately and publicly earlier this year.
Several exchanges with Democrats, including Sen. Cory Booker and then-Rep. Karen Bass, were included in the subpoenaed materials.