Special Counsel Jack Smith's probe into Donald Trump enabled federal investigators to improperly gain access to the private messages of the President's inner circle and top lawmakers, according to a scathing new report. The Senate Judiciary Committee claims that Smith's investigative team obtained and reviewed messages from 44 members of Congress and Trump White House official as part of the Justice Department's criminal investigations into Trump during the Joe Biden administration. The DOJ provided files related to the probe to the Republican Senator's committee for review. The files show that the Biden DOJ reviewed messages sent from both parties, including Democratic Senator Cory Booker and Congressman Adam Smith in addition to scores of Republicans like Grassley himself and Senator Tom Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The bombshell release comes after Smith testified under oath that his team had not reviewed private messages from lawmakers. When pressed during a December 2025 Capitol Hill deposition whether his investigative team read 'the content of text messages,' Smith replied 'no.' 'Jack Smith’s criminal investigation of President Trump was a runaway train that had no brakes,' Grassley said in a statement.

'Biden DOJ and FBI investigators apparently ignored their own routine investigative protocols to obtain and review work-related messages from me and dozens of my Republican and Democrat colleagues who were outside the scope of the government’s investigation.' The messages between the 44 lawmakers and White House staff were sent between October 2020 and January 20, 2021, Biden's first day in office. In June 2023, Smith's team subpoenaed the National Archives for messages from Trump, close aide Dan Scavino, Ivanka Trump, Stephen Miller, former VP Mike Pence, now-CIA Director John Ratcliffe and FBI Director Kash Patel.

Smith was running two probes into Trump: 'Project Coconut,' on his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and 'Project Cranberry,' on claims he withheld classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. The messages were supposed to pass through a 'Filter Team', a backstop to keep privileged material from reaching investigators. 'All communication to/from the Filter Team must go through the Coordinator,' one newly uncovered DOJ document stated.

'No materials shall be disclosed to the investigative team without approval of a filter team attorney.' But according to files handed to the Senate committee, 'the Special Counsel's Investigative Team apparently bypassed the Filter Team and directly accessed these text messages.' Senator Ron Johnson said: 'This is yet another grotesque example of the Biden administration's weaponization of the Justice Department.' Kentucky Senator Rand Paul called Smith's investigation 'a blatant abuse of power, and exactly what our Founders warned about.' The new report has prompted calls for Smith to be investigated for perjury after clips of him denying that his team read the lawmakers' texts began to go viral. Smith could not be reached for comment.