Jack Smith defends subpoenas for Republican lawmakers’ phone records

Former special counsel Jack Smith stands by the 2023 decision to release the phone records of several Republican lawmakers, calling the decision “entirely appropriate” and consistent. Department of Justice policy

In a letter obtained by Fox News Digital, Smith said through his attorneys that data from eight senators and one House deputy, known as Toll records, was carefully targeted to support investigations into the president. By Donald Trump 2020 election allegation.

“As described by various senators, the toll data collection was limited to four days from January 4, 2021 to January 7, 2021, with a focus on telephonic activity around the time of the January 6 riots in the US Capitol,” Smith’s attorneys told the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, R.

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Former special counsel Jack Smith comments on the unsealed four-count indictment against President Donald Trump on August 1, 2023, in Washington. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Toll records do not reveal the content of phone calls but instead reveal when and to whom the calls were made.

Smith’s attorneys said Grassley, who brought the subpoenas to light, forced him to write to the president to address Republican claims that Smith had improperly spied on lawmakers, even though they did not reach out to him.

Grassley responded to the letter by saying he would continue an impartial investigation into Arctic Frost, the name of the FBI investigation that led to Smith’s election-related prosecution of Trump.

“I’m doing an objective evaluation of the facts and the law as he says he wants. So far we’ve had an anti-Trump FBI agent start an investigation / break FBI rules and only target Republicans for smacks of politics,” Grassley wrote on X.

Senators targeted included Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

In addition to the eight senators, Sen. Ted CruzSean Hannity of Fox News, R-Texas, told Fox News on Tuesday that he had recently been asked by Smith to produce his toll records but that his phone company, AT&T, would not provide them.

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Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

Republicans have claimed they were improperly spied on and compared Arctic Frost to the Watergate scandal.

Smith’s attorneys emphasized the generality of phone records searches and said public officials are not immune from investigation.

Smith brought four criminal charges against Trump accusing him of trying to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election, but dismissed the charges after Trump won the 2024 election, citing DOJ policy that discourages prosecuting sitting presidents.

Former Special Counsel Robert K. Harr testified before the House Judiciary Committee on March 12, 2024 in Washington. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Former special counsel Robert Harr subpoenaed the toll records during the investigation of the former president Joe Biden’s Handling classified documents. The DOJ charged former Democratic Sen. Submitted phone records of Robert Menendez, who is serving time in prison after pleading guilty to corruption charges in 2024.

First the Trump administration rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and later submitted phone records to Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and dozens of congressional staffers from both parties as part of the leak investigation.

Former DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz The report on the leak investigation warned that lawmakers’ records should only be released under narrow circumstances because it “risks undermining Congress’s ability to oversee the executive branch.”

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Smith’s lawyers also argued FBI Director Kash Patel accused the former special counsel of trying to hide the subpoenas “in a lockbox in a vault,” noting that the former special counsel cited records of subpoenaing senators in the footnotes of his final special counsel report.

“Furthermore, an accurate record in the case was produced in search of President Trump’s personal attorneys, some of whom now serve in senior positions at the Department of Justice,” Smith’s lawyers said.

Read Smith’s letter below. App users click here.