Jack Smith said it so quietly that everyone on the Senate Judiciary Committee appeared to miss it.
Under intense questioning by Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) during a committee hearing on Tuesday, Smith, the special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022, admitted his office had investigated “false statements” related to the 2020 presidential election.
Watch:
He continued to dig his hole:
Those answers confirmed his sweeping albeit depraved plan to indict hundreds of Republican lawmakers, Trump White House officials, conservative organizations, online influencers, and anyone tied to MAGA world for exercising their free speech rights in the run-up to January 6, 2021 under the so-called “Arctic Frost” investigation opened in April 2022 by then Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco; Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) continues to produce a trove of records from the special counsel’s office demonstrating the corrupt, unconstitutional, and truly unhinged nature of Smith’s crusade to destroy the MAGA movement via “Arctic Frost.”
For roughly four hours, Smith tried to once again portray himself as a hero— a selfless defender of democracy and the “rule of law” unfairly under attack by the president and his allies. He lamented the poor treatment of his former henchmen in the special counsel’s office and insisted prosecutors and investigators tied to the four criminal indictments against President Trump were fired “illegally” by Trump Department of Justice officials.
While there is nothing illegal about ousting DOJ employees who had abused their authority for political purposes, one could safely argue that Smith and his team of thugs acted unlawfully on several fronts. (I listed just some of Smith’s lies and potential crimes here.) A criminal referral against Smith for making false statements to Congress—and a separate referral against Thomas Windom, one of Smith’s top prosecutors in the J6 case, for obstruction of Congress—have been sent to Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Was the Iowa Grandmother Who Donated $1 Under Investigation, too?
But Grassley published more shocking revelations this week. For example, Smith subpoenaed donations made by nearly 5,000 Americans to Trump and related political action committees. What for? Smith didn’t say, but it’s safe to assume those donors were slated to be harassed and perhaps charged by Smith had Kamala Harris won the 2024 election.
Perhaps most infuriating, and in a move with major Fourth Amendment and executive privilege implications at the very least, Smith did an end-around the standard litigation process to quickly obtain the phone records of 87 Trump White House officials including President Trump. According to email traffic between Windom and Gary Stern, the National Archives general counsel at the time, the agency produced those records to the special counsel’s team in August 2023 in response to a subpoena.
Some of the White House officials included in the request were Dan Scavino, Kash Patel, and Mark Meadows; Smith also got his dirty hands on the phone activity of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. (This was in addition to subpoenas to cell phone providers accessing so-called “toll records” of several GOP senators along with nondisclosure orders prohibiting the companies from notifying the lawmakers.)
But there was more to Smith’s NARA demands than meets the eye. The records produced a gold mine of text messages between Trump officials and members of Congress; Grassley recently disclosed that text messages belonging to 44 lawmakers including himself were swept up in the production. Smith, the vaunted “rule of law” defender, ignored Speech or Debate Clause protections for lawmakers; after all, Biden’s DOJ had already successfully fought Speech or Debate Clause considerations related to most of the data swiped off the cell phone of Rep. Scott Perry, who had his device snatched out of his hands in August 2022 while on family vacation, thanks to then D.C. Chief Judge Beryl Howell.
No Media Outrage Over Smith’s Collection of Reporters’ Text Messages
Grassley further disclosed the NARA production contained text messages from dozens of reporters from top news organizations including CBS, NBC, Fox News, and the Wall Street Journal. Sean Davis, the CEO and co-founder of The Federalist, which Grassley also named, issued a lengthy statement. “Corrupt cop Jack Smith spied on The Federalist and accessed our communications during his lawless anti-Trump witch hunt. We are still working to determine which of our reporters were targeted by Jack Smith and which journalistic communications he and his thugs seized.”
What recourse news outlets and reporters have is anyone’s guess. Ditto for Republican lawmakers or conservative organizations targeted by Smith. (Sen. Marsha Blackburn today filed a lawsuit against Smith for violating her Constitutional rights and challenged his appointment as special counsel, which was tossed in the documents case by Judge Aileen Cannon in July 2024.)
What the country cannot tolerate is Smith—who spent at least $50 million in tax dollars over the course of two years—getting off without any consequences. A false statements charge is the bare minimum he should face; the DOJ needs to get moving before it’s too late.
In the meantime, enjoy this takedown by Darline Graham: