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Newly released documents indicate prosecutors obtained and reviewed White House communications involving congressional leaders, Trump administration officials and members of President Donald Trump’s family while bypassing internal safeguards intended to identify privileged material.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Newly disclosed Justice Department records show that special counsel Jack Smith’s team obtained White House text messages involving 44 current or former members of Congress during its investigations of President Donald Trump and people associated with his first administration.
The documents, released Tuesday by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., provide new information about three federal investigations known as Arctic Frost, Project Coconut and Project Cranberry.
Arctic Frost began in April 2022 and examined allegations involving alternate electors after the 2020 presidential election. The investigation ultimately encompassed hundreds of conservative individuals and organizations and became part of Smith’s criminal case against Trump.
Project Coconut concerned the events of Jan. 6, 2021, while Project Cranberry addressed documents recovered from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Grassley said the latest material demonstrated that Smith’s operation extended into communications involving lawmakers from both parties, including members responsible for overseeing the Justice Department and FBI.
The Iowa senator accused Smith of having “ran roughshod over the Constitution.”
Smith has previously denied that his office spied on lawmakers. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment following Tuesday’s release.
Grassley said he intends to require Smith to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for questioning.
The lawmakers released both the underlying Arctic Frost review documents and a detailed Justice Department memorandum explaining how prosecutors handled the communications.
Arctic Frost Filter Review Released by Grassley and Johnson by yourNEWS Media
Doj to Grassley – Arctic Frost Filter Team by yourNEWS Media
The materials focus in part on the Justice Department’s use of filter teams, which are designed to separate potentially privileged information from evidence that investigators may lawfully review.
Such teams are intended to protect attorney-client communications, constitutional privileges and other sensitive material from direct examination by prosecutors conducting the underlying case.
According to the congressional inquiry, Smith’s office did not wait for that protective process to be completed before examining a large body of White House communications.
The National Archives and Records Administration transferred 54 spreadsheets containing text messages from the White House custodian to Smith’s office in June 2023.
Within approximately one hour of receiving the records, senior prosecutor Thomas Windom began reviewing communications involving Trump and senior members of his administration, according to the newly released material.
Those communications included messages involving former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, former deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, former Vice President Mike Pence and Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, among others.
The timing described in the documents indicates that the investigative team began examining the records before a full review for privileged or otherwise protected information had been completed.
The text-message collection covered communications dating from October 2020 through Jan. 20, 2021, the day former President Joe Biden took office.
The records also included messages to and from dozens of lawmakers, even though many of those members were not targets of the investigation.
The Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section had warned that reviewing congressional communications could implicate the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause, according to the explanatory memorandum.
That clause protects lawmakers from being questioned elsewhere about legitimate legislative acts and is intended to preserve the independence of Congress from interference by the executive and judicial branches.
Despite that warning, Smith’s team obtained communications involving senior congressional officials, including the chairmen of committees responsible for oversight of the Justice Department.
Grassley and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, were among those whose communications appeared in the records.
Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., who had publicly criticized FBI conduct in earlier investigations, was also included.
“Jack Smith’s criminal investigation of President Trump was a runaway train that had no brakes,” Grassley said. “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 who were outside the scope of the government’s investigation.”
Johnson similarly accused the investigative team of disregarding established safeguards.
“Jack Smith’s team acted with impunity as they disregarded their own protocols to obtain and access White House text messages, including messages to and from 44 Members of Congress,” Johnson said. “At this point, no one should be shocked by Jack Smith’s recklessness and blatant abuse of power, but they should be outraged.”
The senators released the documents as part of their continuing examination of Arctic Frost and related investigative activity carried out during the Biden administration.
The records emerged shortly before Trump was scheduled to deliver a prime-time presidential address Thursday concerning election integrity and foreign interference in the 2020 election, according to multiple reports.
Federal investigative policy treats inquiries involving elected officials, political candidates, members of the news media and religious organizations as especially sensitive.
The FBI classifies such matters as “sensitive investigative matters”, requiring additional scrutiny because of their potential implications for constitutional rights, political activity and public confidence.
A government watchdog report released in January 2026 found that the FBI had opened more than 1,000 sensitive investigative matters through preliminary assessments that did not require evidence that a crime had occurred.
The newly released Arctic Frost records add to congressional concerns about how those investigative authorities were used against elected officials and political organizations.
The investigation’s codename also carries an unrelated meaning. Arctic Frost is the name of a species of orange.
According to the Senate investigation, the congressional communications reviewed by Smith’s team involved the following 44 lawmakers:
- Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa
- Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.
- Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas
- Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
- Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.
- Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah
- Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.
- Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss.
- Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska
- Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga.
- Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.
- Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz.
- Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
- Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla.
- Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio
- Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.
- Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine
- Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.
- Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.
- Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo.
- Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
- Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La.
- Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio
- Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif.
- Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash.
- Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.
- Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C.
- Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis.
- Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash.
- Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga.
- Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D.
- Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.
- Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y.
- Rep. Joshua Gottheimer, D-N.J.
- Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif.
- Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo.
- Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y.
- Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla.
- Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala.
- Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va.
- Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill.
- Rep. Russ Fulcher, R-Idaho
- Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa.
- Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky.
The list includes Republicans and Democrats, sitting lawmakers and former members, committee leaders and legislators who had no identified role in the conduct Smith’s office was investigating.
Congressional investigators have not alleged that every communication contained substantive evidence or that each named lawmaker was personally investigated.
Their concern centers on the breadth of the acquisition, the apparent failure to complete privilege screening before prosecutors accessed the material and the inclusion of legislative communications outside the stated scope of the investigation.
The disclosures also raise questions about whether Smith’s office observed the separation-of-powers protections that apply when executive branch investigators obtain material involving Congress.
Grassley and Johnson are continuing their inquiry into how the records were acquired, who authorized their review and whether Justice Department officials knowingly disregarded internal warnings about protected congressional communications.
Smith’s expected appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee would give lawmakers an opportunity to question him directly about the handling of the 54 spreadsheets, the role of the filter team and his previous denial that members of Congress were subjected to surveillance.
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