During his January 22, 2026, testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, former Special Counsel Jack Smith rejected accusations of spying, telling lawmakers, “My office didn’t spy on anyone.” Smith and his team defended the use of toll records as a “routine and lawful” investigative step.
Mounting evidence of the deep state operating through Biden’s weaponized Justice Department emerged Tuesday when Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson released a damning “Arctic Frost Filter Review” document from Jack Smith’s Special Counsel probe.
This explosive development doesn’t just undermine, it destroys, Smith’s credibility, as it proves his team accessed not merely toll record metadata but the raw content of private text messages with zero proper safeguards.
What has previously been reported as mere toll data has now been exposed as a largely covert spying operation targeting, “most targets,” while a hand-picked filter team, governed by strict protocols the Special Counsel’s office had established and was tasked with protecting millions of documents, emails, devices, and accounts from improper exposure.
The evidence, released on July 14, 2026, revealed that Smith’s team secretly obtained and reviewed text messages involving 44 current and former members of Congress.
The communications were pulled from a June 2, 2023 request by senior Smith prosecutor Thomas Windom to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for White House text messages covering the period from October 2020 through January 20, 2021.
NARA delivered the materials on August 21, 2023, weeks after Smith’s indictment of Trump.
Within minutes of NARA’s delivery, at 12:19 p.m. senior Smith prosecutor Thomas Windom had already downloaded the spreadsheets containing the texts. By 12:45 p.m. he emailed the team to do the same, and by 1:02 p.m. he was sharing specific excerpts, completely bypassing the filter team.
Records further show Smith’s team planned to turn some of these materials over in pre-trial discovery to Trump’s legal team, raising questions about potential mishandling and strategic use of the improperly accessed communications.
These protocols were designed to protect congressional communications, Speech or Debate Clause privileges, attorney-client privilege, and other sensitive materials.
The messages included exchanges between the lawmakers and senior Trump White House officials and associates, including Mark Meadows, Dan Scavino, Ivanka Trump, Stephen Miller, Peter Navarro, and others. The topics focused on the certification of electoral votes and post-election challenges.
The disclosure has prompted Republican lawmakers to condemn Smith and his team for what they describe as outright spying and unauthorized surveillance on members of Congress.
Grassley and Johnson went further, accusing Smith’s team of deliberately bypassing standard filter-team review protocols that had been established for both Project Coconut, the January 6 investigation, and Project Cranberry, the Mar-a-Lago documents case. They described the actions as a serious violation of established investigative procedures and an unconstitutional intrusion into the duties of elected officials.
“Jack Smith’s criminal investigation of President Trump was a runaway train that had no brakes,” Grassley stated. “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… Smith’s team ran roughshod over the Constitution.”
Grassley added that he intends to bring Smith before the Senate Judiciary Committee for accountability and to answer for this unconstitutional intrusion.
“This is yet another grotesque example of the Biden administration’s weaponization of the Justice Department,” Johnson said. “Jack Smith’s team acted with impunity… no one should be shocked by Jack Smith’s recklessness and blatant abuse of power.”
This latest revelation builds on earlier controversies in which Smith’s office issued at least 197 grand jury subpoenas targeting sensitive records from over 400 Republican groups and individuals, as well as phone toll records (metadata) for approximately nine to 20 current or former Republican members of Congress including figures such as Lindsey Graham and Josh Hawley.
Prominent figures including Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Rep. Darrell Issa have accused Smith of targeting Trump allies. Critics frame the efforts as part of a broader pattern of politicized investigations.
The filter team had reviewed millions of documents across the two investigations, yet Smith’s team reportedly accessed the congressional texts directly.
The 44 affected members include Grassley and Johnson themselves, along with other Republicans such as Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton, and Susan Collins, plus a handful of Democrats, forming a bipartisan group of senators and representatives.
Further congressional oversight and disclosures are expected, including additional document requests and potential hearings, along with questions about whether Smith’s earlier testimony constitutes perjury. This is more proof of how the Biden administration turned the DOJ into a political weapon, as legitimate questions remain about the balance between investigative authority and constitutional protections for elected officials.
