Former Special Counsel Jack Smith faced a contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday after Chairman Chuck Grassley unveiled new disclosures showing Smith’s investigation obtained records containing communications involving nearly 50 journalists and thousands of checks from people who donated to President Trump and Republican organizations.
The revelations concern Arctic Frost, the federal investigation that eventually became Smith’s election case against President Trump.
According to records released by Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans, investigators subpoenaed material associated with 87 White House phones from President Trump’s first administration. The resulting records included communications involving journalists at Fox News, CNN, CBS News, NBC News, CNBC, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, The Associated Press, NPR, The Federalist and other organizations.
Grassley sharply criticized the scope of the collection, characterizing it as government overreach. The disclosures do not, by themselves, establish that Smith specifically targeted those journalists. Fox News reported that their communications appeared in records produced by the National Archives in response to a subpoena for material associated with the White House phones.
The financial records produced another heated exchange.
Grassley said Smith’s team obtained at least 4,782 donor checks from Americans across all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The committee said many were small-dollar contributions, with the checks exposing information that could include home addresses, bank account and routing numbers, and signatures. The records covered donations dating from September 2019 through August 2023.
Smith acknowledged during the hearing that his investigation acquired financial information.
“Yes, we acquired financial information,” Smith told Grassley, while saying he could not recall every subpoena issued by the investigation. Smith defended the investigative work as part of his responsibility to collect evidence in what he described as an extraordinarily serious criminal investigation.
Grassley wasn’t persuaded.
“There’s no legitimate basis for what you did,” the Iowa Republican told Smith, arguing that Republican donations were unnecessary to the investigation. Grassley warned that the government had obtained sensitive personal and banking information belonging to thousands of Americans.
Smith, meanwhile, rejected Republican accusations that his investigation was politically motivated. Reuters reported that he told senators his prosecutorial decisions were based on evidence and law, not political affiliation, and defended obtaining congressional phone records because investigators had evidence that President Trump and allies attempted to contact senators while Congress was certifying the 2020 election on January 6, 2021.
Democrats on the committee defended Smith and argued that Republican criticism was intended to undermine legitimate investigations into President Trump’s conduct. Ranking Democrat Dick Durbin has described Smith as a career prosecutor and emphasized that Smith had offered to testify publicly under oath.
The newly disclosed records nevertheless raise significant questions about investigative scope and privacy. They show that Arctic Frost collected information extending beyond President Trump himself, reaching lawmakers, journalists and thousands of political donors.
Whether those collections were justified investigative steps or improper overreach was precisely where Tuesday’s hearing divided sharply along partisan lines.
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