Jack Smith's devastating letter to Grassley about his purported revelation

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Roger Parloff @rparloff
Jack Smith's devastating letter to Grassley. Grassley's purported revelation—that Smith analyzed toll records of 8 US Senators—was disclosed in Smith's report, evident from the indictment, & produced to Trump's attys who are now top DOJ officials. Trump did same to Swalwell, Schiff & 43 staffers during Trump I.

Zoe Tillman @ZoeTillman
The Return of Jack Smith, pt. II: The former Trump prosecutor's lawyers offered the latest rebuttal to escalating attacks on his work -- this time re: a grand jury subpoena for lawmakers' phone activity records during the 2020 election probe
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-21/ex-trump-prosecutor-defends-subpoena-for-lawmaker-call-records?srnd=undefined

Letter: (pdf) https://t.co/yYiAq6zRfG

Dear Chairman Grassley: We write on behalf of our client, former Special Counsel Jack Smith, in response to concerns raised by you and Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding certain investigative steps taken by the Special Counsel’s Office in its investigation of President Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents and his role in attempting to overthrow the results of the 2020 election. Although you have not reached out to us to discuss this matter, we are compelled to correct inaccurate assertions made by you and others concerning the issuance of a grand jury subpoena for the toll records of eight Senators and one Member of the House of Representatives. Mr. Smith’s actions as Special Counsel were consistent with the decisions of a prosecutor who has devoted his career to following the facts and the law, without fear or favor and without regard for the political consequences. His investigative decisions were similarly motivated, and the subpoena for toll records was entirely proper, lawful, and consistent with established Department of Justice policy. While Mr. Smith’s prosecutions of President Trump have predictably been politicized by others, politics never influenced his decision making.

A number of people have falsely stated that Mr. Smith “tapped” Senators’ phones, “spied” on their communications, or “surveilled” their conversations. As you know, toll records merely contain telephonic routing information—collected after the calls have taken place— identifying incoming and outgoing call numbers, the time of the calls, and their duration. Toll records are historical in nature, and do not include the content of calls. Wiretapping, by contrast, involves intercepting the telecommunications in real time, which the Special Counsel’s Office did not do.

As described by various Senators, the toll data collection was narrowly tailored and limited to the four days from January 4, 2021 to January 7, 2021, with a focus on telephonic activity during the period immediately surrounding the January 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol. The subpoena’s limited temporal range is consistent with a focused effort to confirm or refute reports by multiple news outlets that during and after the January 6 riots at the Capitol, President Trump and his surrogates attempted to call Senators to urge them to delay