Senate to Question Jack Smith After DOJ Records Show Congress Members Surveilled

Summary

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley announced Tuesday that former special counsel Jack Smith will be called to testify after newly released Justice Department records revealed that Smith's investigative team accessed text messages belonging to 44 members of Congress during the criminal investigation into Donald Trump. The surveillance operation, which the NY Post identifies by the internal name Arctic Frost, is now at the center of a Senate inquiry. Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, released the records jointly with the Senate Permanent Subcommittee, framing the disclosures as evidence of serious overreach by Smith's team. The scale is notable: 44 sitting members of Congress had their communications accessed as part of a probe into a former and now-current president. Whether the surveillance was legally authorized or constitutionally permissible under the Speech or Debate Clause, which protects congressional communications from executive branch scrutiny, is likely to be a central question when Smith appears before the committee. Smith's office did not respond publicly ahead of these disclosures. The revelations arrive as congressional Republicans have been systematically revisiting the legal actions taken against Trump during his time out of office.