by WorldTribune Staff, July 15, 2026 Non-AI Real World News

During the Biden-Harris regime’s investigation of President Donald Trump, special counsel Jack Smith secretly accessed the private text messages of 44 members of Congress and then lied about it in congressional testimony, newly released documents show.

Smith’s team ignored required procedures to view the lawmakers’ text messages, then testified that he only had obtained “toll records,” or data about the texts, such as timestamps and recipients, not the text content, according to the documents released by Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson.

“This is a blatant abuse of power, and exactly what our Founders warned about,” Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul wrote on X.

Paul also called out Smith for his testimony during a December 2025 congressional deposition when he was asked under oath whether his team had reviewed the content of text messages belonging to members of Congress, he answered, “No.”

Soon after Trump announced his third run for the White House, Smith was appointed by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022 to oversee the Biden-Harris regime’s lawfare campaign.

The records released by Grassley and Johnson provide evidence that the Biden-Harris DOJ established a “Filter Team” to evaluate materials obtained in the course of Smith’s investigations. These included a probe relating to January 6 codenamed “Project Coconut,” an investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, known as Project “Cranberry,” all part of “Arctic Frost,” a sweeping probe into efforts to challenge 2020 election results, a Senate Judiciary Committee press release said.

While the Filter Team’s purpose was to prevent investigators from the Special Counsel’s Office and the FBI from accessing privileged materials among records obtained, evidence shows that investigators bypassed this, potentially infringing on constitutional guardrails, according to the release.

“[Filter] teams protect the integrity of a prosecution and preserve the constitutional rights of the parties involved,” noted Assistant Attorney General Patrick Davis in a letter to Grassley with other public records documenting Smith’s spying. “Failure to adhere to sound filter team protocols can lead to the suppression of evidence or the disqualification of the prosecution team.”

Davis’s letter notes Smith’s team had been trained on this matter and thus knew this action was unconstitutional. That is demonstrated in the documents release, which shows filter team instructions and training clearly outlining the protocols Smith’s team reportedly violated.

Smith was ultimately unable to secure a conviction against Trump. His investigation cost American taxpayers $23 million.

Smith’s team obtained the private text messages through a subpoena to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for phone records stored between October 2020 to Jan. 20, 2022, which were handed over on Aug. 21, 2023.

The phones were associated with a long list of officials serving in the White House during President Trump’s first term, including Trump himself, as well as Stephen Miller, Rudy Giuliani, Kellyanne Conway, Peter Navarro, the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and former Vice President Mike Pence.

Smith’s investigative team downloaded and began reviewing the texts without waiting for the Filter Team’s evaluation.

“Based on the information that’s been produced to me and Senator Johnson, 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,” said Grassley, who was also targeted in the investigations.

Writing for The Federalist, Joy Pullmann noted: “The new disclosures provide yet more evidence the Biden administration violated officeholders’ oaths of office by abusing the separation of powers. The Constitution’s ‘speech and debate’ clause protects members of Congress from criminal prosecution for speech in pursuit of their legislative duties.

While engaging in authoritarian activities of the highest degree, the Biden administration and its media echo chamber insisted their victims were the real authoritarians. Projection at such scale is not only a mark of psychopathy, but also of totalitarianism.

Freedom Rocks! Until It Is Gone

  ‘Blatant abuse of power’: Jack Smith obtained private texts of 44 members of Congress, WorldTribune.com