Special Counsel Jack Smith’s targeting of Kash Patel and numerous congressional Republicans as part of his lawfare against Donald Trump was worse than originally thought, new records show.
Released Tuesday by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the new documents demonstrate that Smith and his team’s efforts to acquire Patel’s phone records during his time as a private citizen were far more extensive than previously reported. The bid to acquire such information came as part of Smith’s Arctic Frost investigation, which ultimately became his elector lawfare against Trump.
Now-FBI Director Patel originally told Reuters last month that the Biden FBI had subpoenaed his phone records, as well as those of then-Trump confidant and now-White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. The subpoenas covered phone calls from 2022 and 2023, with Patel claiming that Smith’s collection of Wiles’ phone records “extended into [her] time as Trump’s co-campaign manager, though he did not say when exactly the record collection began or ended,” according to the outlet.
The new documents released Tuesday show that Smith’s team issued two subpoenas to Verizon for roughly two-years’ worth of Patel’s phone records. The first was issued on Nov. 23, 2022, for records “from January 1, 2021 to present,” and the second was issued on Feb. 22, 2023, for records “from October 1, 2020, through February 22, 2023.”
Among the information sought by Smith’s team was Patel’s addresses (“including mailing addresses, service addresses, residential addresses, business addresses, and email addresses”); “Local and long distance telephone connection records (including records of text messages sent and received);” and names (“including subscriber names, user names, and screen names”). The request for “sent and received” text messages “would not include the text messages’ contents,” according to Grassley’s office.
The Iowa senator’s team did note, however, that “Congress has not been given any indication from Verizon that the company didn’t comply” with Smith’s subpoenas.
The released records further show that Smith and Co.’s subpoenas were accompanied by nondisclosure orders (NDOs) to prevent the now-FBI director from being notified of their existence. These NDOs were granted by Magistrate Judge James Mazzone and then-Chief D.C. District Judge Beryl Howell, an Obama appointee, based on “reasonable grounds” that disclosure of the subpoenas will result in actions such as “destruction of or tampering with evidence,” “flight from prosecution,” “intimidation of potential witnesses,” and/or “serious jeopardy to the investigation.”
The newly disclosed documents also provide further insight into Smith’s targeting of GOP senators and congressmen and their phone records as part of his Arctic Frost lawfare.
Included in the trove of files were a series of January 2023 emails between members of Smith’s team. The records show the Justice Department officials discussing plans to subpoena the tolls records of various Republican members of Congress and their staff, including (but not limited to) Reps. Andy Biggs and Mo Brooks and Sens. Mike Lee and Bill Hagerty.
“The conversations between DOJ prosecutors show they already knew what phone calls took place — yet they subpoenaed members’ toll records anyway,” Grassley’s team summarized.
[RELATED: New Docs Reveal Jack Smith Intentionally Violated Congressional Republicans’ Constitutional Rights]
The last batch of documents released Tuesday include numerous January 2023 “AG Briefing” materials, which seemingly indicate plans by Smith’s team to brief Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland on the investigation.
The materials telegraphed Smith’s team had or was planning to have meetings with notable high-profile officials, including then-FBI Director Christopher Wray, then-FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate, Chief Judge Howell and now-Chief D.C. District Judge James Boasberg. As The Federalist previously reported, the Obama-appointed Boasberg — who has become a thorn in the side of the Trump administration litigation before his court — was instrumental in giving Smith’s team the greenlight to spy on GOP members of Congress.
“Overall: FBI has been very responsive,” a note by Smith’s team reads.
The AG briefing materials also showed that Smith’s team relied on a report authored by the discredited and now-disbanded House Select Committee on Jan. 6. The briefing notes specify that members of the special counsel “went over it page by page and [sic] incorporated [it] into our investigative plan” and had “a methodical process for logging information contained in the report.”
“We will leverage this to avoid needless interviews and focus the interviews we perform on underdeveloped topics,” the briefing materials read.
Grassley’s office noted how Smith claimed in his Special Counsel Report that his inquiry “included consideration of the [House Jan. 6] report” but that “[t]hose materials comprised a small part of the Office’s investigative record, and any facts on which the Office relied to make a prosecution decision were developed or verified through independent interviews and other investigative steps.”
“The American people deserve to know the full extent of Jack Smith’s partisan investigative tactics that unjustly targeted sitting Members of Congress as well as ordinary law-abiding citizens,” Sen. Johnson said in a statement. “I expect AT&T and Verizon to fully comply with my January 13, 2026 subpoenas for records that will provide Senator Grassley and me with even more evidence of the Biden administration’s efforts to weaponize the federal justice system against President Trump and his allies.”
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics and RealClearHealth. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
