Jack Smith Probe Included Communications With Nearly 50 Journalists, Records Show
The special counsel's investigators subpoenaed text message records from White House phones, which also captured communications between government officials and media personnel.
Investigators in former Special Counsel Jack Smith's probe obtained records containing communications between nearly 50 journalists and Trump administration officials. These records were acquired after investigators subpoenaed text message data associated with dozens of White House phones during the federal election investigation of President Donald Trump.
The communications surfaced in records produced by the National Archives in response to a subpoena seeking material related to 87 White House phones from Trump's first administration. This disclosure expands the scope of the investigation beyond lawmakers, whose communications were previously known to have been obtained.
Among the news organizations whose journalists' communications appear in the records are Fox News, CNN, CBS News (including "60 Minutes"), NBC News, and CNBC. The records also include communications from journalists at the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, Reuters, the Associated Press, NPR, The Federalist, and the Washington Times. The nationally syndicated "Mark Levin Show" is also cited in the records.
The subpoena for the text messages was issued by Smith's office to the National Archives on June 2, 2023. The Archives produced responsive records on August 21, 2023, according to documents previously disclosed through congressional oversight by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Johnson, R-Wis.
Sen. Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, challenged the scope of the probe, stating, "What will the partisan media say about this disgraceful government overreach? This wasn’t a normal prosecution by any means." Critics have noted a perceived lack of media coverage regarding Smith's investigation.
Grassley and Johnson had previously pressed the Justice Department and FBI in May regarding the procedures used to screen potentially privileged material within the produced records. An email from assistant special counsel Thomas Windom dated August 21, 2023, instructed members of Smith’s team to download documents associated with text messages from the White House phones.
The senators wrote, "We are writing to determine what procedures and protocols, if any, Smith and his team used to filter privileged or potentially privileged materials from being impermissibly accessed, reviewed and/or used." They also requested information on the Justice Department's filtering protocols and the names of officials tasked with reviewing material for privilege prior to investigators accessing it.
The committee has identified the individual journalists whose communications were obtained but is withholding their names due to privacy concerns, a spokesperson for Grassley told Fox News Digital. The disclosure is expected to fuel further scrutiny of Smith's investigative practices and the broader scope of the "Arctic Frost" investigation ahead of an upcoming Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.