{"id":2630015,"date":"2026-07-15T10:12:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T14:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-docs-support-allegations-that-jack-smiths-team-violated-constitution-in-get-trump-probe\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T10:13:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T14:13:33","slug":"new-docs-support-allegations-that-jack-smiths-team-violated-constitution-in-get-trump-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-docs-support-allegations-that-jack-smiths-team-violated-constitution-in-get-trump-probe\/","title":{"rendered":"New Docs Support Claims Jack Smith&#8217;s Team Violated Constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnew-docs-support-allegations-that-jack-smiths-team-violated-constitution-in-get-trump-probe%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2630015&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The text reveals significant concerns regarding Special Counsel Jack Smith\u2019s investigation into former president Donald Trump.Newly released internal documents, obtained through whistleblower tips and shared by Senator Chuck Grassley, show that Smith\u2019s team intentionally bypassed established protocol designed too protect privileged communications, including attorney-client and Speech or Debate privileges of Members of Congress. Specifically, the documents indicate that a &#8220;filter team&#8221; tasked with reviewing materials for privilege was ignored, with texts from Congress members and White house personnel being directly accessed and reviewed by investigators shortly after NARA provided them. This action appears to violate legal protections,particularly the Speech or Debate Clause,which requires Congress members to be given an chance to assert their privileges before their legislative materials are disclosed. These revelations raise questions about the legality and constitutional compliance of Smith\u2019s methods, suggesting potential violations of members\u2019 rights and the integrity of the investigation. The article emphasizes the importance of further scrutiny, including testimony from Jack Smith, to clarify the extent of rights violations and procedural misconduct.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Special Counsel Jack Smith\u2019s office analyzed the text messages of some 40-plus Members of Congress, with newly released internal documents indicating that the lead investigators ignored the established filter team review process \u2014 a process instituted to protect attorney-client privileged communications. Those documents, released <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grassley.senate.gov\/news\/news-releases\/news-jack-smiths-investigative-team-secretly-obtained-text-messages-from-44-members-of-congress-amid-trump-probe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tuesday<\/a> by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, following whistleblowers tips, prove even more damning, though, to the special counsel\u2019s brazen disregard of the Constitution\u2019s Speech or Debate Clause.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, Sen. Grassley made public a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grassley.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/doj_to_grassley_-_arctic_frost_filter_team.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">letter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grassley.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/arctic_frost_filter_review_released_by_grassley_and_johnson.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">records<\/a> he obtained jointly with his colleague, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., as part of their oversight of the weaponization of the DOJ and FBI under the Biden Administration. That cover letter from the DOJ\u2019s Office of Legislative Affairs explained to the senators that Special Counsel Smith\u2019s team had established a filter team intended to protect privileged communications obtained during the investigators\u2019 targeting of Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>While the filter team protocols provided that \u201c[n]o materials shall be disclosed to the investigative team without approval of a filter team attorney,\u201d the DOJ\u2019s Office of Legislative Affairs explained that documents uncovered based on whistleblower disclosures revealed that the special counsel\u2019s office \u201capparently bypassed the Filter Team and directly accessed these text messages.\u201d The \u201ctext messages\u201d referenced were \u201ctext messages between White House personnel and several Senators and Representatives,\u201d namely 44 different Members of Congress.<\/p>\n<p>The records released yesterday by Sen. Grassley included a cache of 90 pages of emails and slides detailing the filter team process. An email dated May 27, 2022, from a contractor providing technical support to the special counsel\u2019s office to Thomas Windom \u2014 an attorney working with Smith \u2014 proves particularly significant.<\/p>\n<p>In that email, the contractor thanked Windom and his colleague, Kelly Zusman, for \u201cjumping on an early call this morning to discuss\u201d the \u201cFilter Review workflow\u201d related to the special counsel\u2019s investigation into Trump. The summary that followed detailed the internal process and made clear that \u201cthe Filter Review Team\u201d would make privilege determination before documents were reviewed by the investigative teams. The email stressed that if the filter team, which consisted of a group of DOJ lawyers not involved in the investigation, concluded the documents were privileged, they \u201cwill <em>not<\/em> be sent to the Substantive Team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Windom apparently initially followed that procedure, with an email dated June 26, 2023, showing the special counsel attorney forwarding to the contractor \u201ca new NARA production for upload,\u201d although why NARA provided the responsive documents directly to an investigator, as opposed to the filter team, is unclear. However, a later email dated August 21, 2023, shows NARA sending Windom a link to additional records, namely 54 spreadsheets, which include text messages of Members of Congress. Additional emails from the same date show that Windom downloaded those records and shared them with other members of the investigative team.<\/p>\n<p>As Grassley <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grassley.senate.gov\/news\/news-releases\/news-jack-smiths-investigative-team-secretly-obtained-text-messages-from-44-members-of-congress-amid-trump-probe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">explained<\/a>: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>NARA provided the texts to [the Special Counsel\u2019s Office] on August 21, 2023. <strong>Within half an hour, <\/strong>one of Smith\u2019s senior lawyers, Thomas Windom, downloaded the texts and,<strong> within one hour<\/strong>, other members of Smith\u2019s investigative team downloaded and began reviewing the texts. It appears the review was done without waiting for the Filter Team to evaluate and segregate privileged information.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The apparent bypassing of the filter team by the Special Counsel Office is but the latest scandal surrounding Jack Smith\u2019s crusade against Trump \u2014 but it also represents only a portion of the problem revealed in the latest document dump: The records released yesterday show that the filter team utterly failed to consider the Speech or Debate privilege held by senators and congressmen.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, presentation slides that summarized the filter team\u2019s purpose and process note that the task was to \u201creview information gathered from email accounts and devices for attorney-client privilege and work product information.\u201d The opening slide also notes that \u201cthe investigation team presented a filter protocol,\u201d but then none of the slides even mention the Speech or Debate privilege. <\/p>\n<p>This proves particularly outrageous because Windom, who on May 27, 2022 coordinated with the outside contractor concerning the filter review process, had just ten days earlier been alerted to controlling D.C. Circuit precedent that <em>requires <\/em>Members of Congress to be given an opportunity to \u201cidentify and assert the privilege with respect to legislative materials\u00a0before\u00a0their compelled disclosure to Executive agents.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, in what has become known as \u201cthe PIN email,\u201d Windom, along with other special counsel colleagues, were told in an email that \u201cthere is some litigation risk regarding whether compelled disclosure of toll records of a member\u2019s legislative calls violates the Speech or Debate Clause in the D.C. Circuit.\u201d That email then cited the controlling precedent of <em>United States v.\u00a0Rayburn House\u00a0Off. Bldg., Room 2113<\/em>, 497 F.3d 654, 662\u00a0(D.C. Cir. 2007), highlighting the Court\u2019s holding that \u201c[t]he bar on compelled disclosure is absolute.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>But <em>Rayburn <\/em>went further and held that before obtaining access to legislative materials \u2014 something broadly defined in the law to include communications related to legislative duties \u2014 \u201ca Member of Congress must be provided the opportunity to identify protected materials and assert their Speech or Debate privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p>Yet the special counsel\u2019s investigative team apparently approved a filter team protocol that ignored any Speech or Debate privilege \u2014 even though they <em>knew <\/em>the D.C. Circuit required Members of Congress be given an opportunity to assert that constitutional privilege. And at least when it comes to attorney-client Privilege, the Justice Department\u2019s manual <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/jm\/jm-9-13000-obtaining-evidence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">provides<\/a> that filter protocols should \u201cbe tailored to the facts of each case and the requirements and judicial preference and precedents of each district . . . \u201d<\/p>\n<p>Not only did the special counsel\u2019s office ignore the Speech or Debate Clause when it came to filtering material obtained with subpoenas, it hid from the courts issuing those subpoenas, as well as the accompanying non-disclosure orders, that Smith was <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/12\/01\/new-docs-reveal-jack-smith-intentionally-violated-congressional-republicans-constitutional-rights\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">targeting<\/a> the toll records \u2014 and apparently text messages too \u2014 of U.S. Senators and Congressmen.<\/p>\n<p>With this evidence only now coming out, one must wonder what other rights the special counsel\u2019s office trampled. But one thing is clear: Sen. Grassley is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-X1H3J3sCiM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wise<\/a> to wait to call Jack Smith to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee until the Iowa senator has obtained all of the relevant documents identified by the whistleblowers.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Margot Cleveland is an investigative journalist and legal analyst and serves as The Federalist\u2019s senior legal correspondent. Margot\u2019s work has been published at The Wall Street Journal, The American Spectator, the New Criterion, National Review Online, Townhall.com, the Daily Signal, USA Today, and the Detroit Free Press.     She is also a regular guest on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-alito-freakout-is-a-false-flag-operation-to-take-down-the-court\/\" title=\"Democrats are falsely targeting Alito to undermine the Court\">nationally syndicated radio programs<\/a> and on Fox News, Fox Business, and Newsmax. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize\u2014the law school\u2019s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.      Cleveland is a former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/5-media-lies-about-the-latest-special-counsel-revelations\/\" title=\"5 Media Lies About The Latest Special ... Revelations\">full-time university faculty member<\/a> and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. Cleveland is also of counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance.       Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland where you can read more about her greatest accomplishments\u2014her dear husband and dear son. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Smith\u2019s team bypassed Congress privilege review process<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":2630017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-219-1024x576.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546,33651],"tags":[3985,32311,5045,32849,4431],"class_list":["post-2630015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","category-the-western-journal","tag-conspiracy","tag-free-speech","tag-government","tag-judicial-misconduct","tag-legal"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-219-1024x576.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2630015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2630015"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2630015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2630020,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2630015\/revisions\/2630020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2630017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2630015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2630015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2630015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}