{"id":2672643,"date":"2026-09-29T10:54:02","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T14:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignbreaking-jack-smith-spied-on-and-targeted-the-federalist-during-bidens-anti-trump-witch-hunt\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T11:02:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T15:02:28","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignbreaking-jack-smith-spied-on-and-targeted-the-federalist-during-bidens-anti-trump-witch-hunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignbreaking-jack-smith-spied-on-and-targeted-the-federalist-during-bidens-anti-trump-witch-hunt\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Smith Spied On The Federalist During Anti-Trump Witch Hunt"},"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\">20<\/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%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignbreaking-jack-smith-spied-on-and-targeted-the-federalist-during-bidens-anti-trump-witch-hunt%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=2672643&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>Former Special Counsel Jack Smith obtained communications from The Federalist and over a dozen other media outlets during his investigation into Trump, reportedly in an attempt to target Republicans and members of Congress. these records were part of a broader effort that involved subpoenaing text messages from 87 phones used by officials during Trump\u2019s first term. Smith\u2019s investigation,referred to as \u201cArctic frost,\u201d is criticized as unconstitutional and described as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/liberals-are-already-panicking-about-trumps-2024-plan\/\" title=\"Liberals Are Already Panicking About ...&#039;s 2024 Plan\">politically motivated effort<\/a> that included spying on Congress members and media organizations. <\/p>\n<p>Grassley revealed that Smith\u2019s team targeted hundreds of Republican groups and individuals, and obtained communications with various media outlets such as 60 Minutes, Associated Press, CNN, Fox News, The Washington Post, and The Federalist, among others. Smith also subpoenaed records of members of Congress, despite concerns over violating the Speech or Debate clause, wich protects legislative activities from executive branch interference. Grassley accused smith\u2019s team of disregarding these protections and even discussed attempting to bypass legal barriers.<\/p>\n<p>The Federalist, which has a history of exposing alleged corruption, expressed concern over being targeted and indicated plans to explore legal options. The investigation apparently extended beyond the January 6th events, encompassing records from 2019 to 2023, suggesting the broader intent to map and monitor the Republican party and its allied entities, including media. Grassley concluded that while Smith indicted Trump, his true achievement was mapping the broader Republican and media network involved.  <\/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>Former Special Counsel Jack Smith obtained communications from The Federalist, along with more than a dozen other media outlets, during his anti-Trump lawfare, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, revealed Tuesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.<\/p>\n<p>The Federalist was among more than a dozen media organizations whose communications appeared in records that the National Archives turned over after Smith\u2019s office subpoenaed text messages from 87 phones used by officials in Trump\u2019s first term. Smith\u2019s witch hunt, known as \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/10\/29\/100-times-worse-than-watergate-3-biggest-revelations-from-latest-arctic-frost-document-dump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Arctic Frost<\/a>,\u201d was an unconstitutional effort to get Trump that resulted in Smith\u2019s team spying on members of Congress and apparently members of the media.<\/p>\n<p>The Federalist\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/10\/29\/arctic-frost-docs-expose-breadth-of-biden-dojs-weaponization\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Margot Cleveland<\/a> explained that Arctic Frost was designed to \u201ctarget Republicans in key battleground states.\u201d During this sham investigation, Smith also secretly obtained the phone records of several sitting senators.<\/p>\n<p>As part of those spying efforts, Smith also \u201ctargeted hundreds of Republican groups and individuals\u201d and \u201csubpoenaed communications those folks had with the media and legislative branch,\u201d Grassley said on Tuesday. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I can say today is that Smith also obtained communications from members of the media, to include: 60 Minutes, Associated Press, Bloomberg, CBS, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, LA Times, Mark Levin Show, Media Research Center, NBC, NPR, NY Magazine, Reuters, The Federalist, The Washington Post, Washington Times and the Wall Street Journal,\u201d Grassley revealed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>[READNEXT:[READNEXT:<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/02\/26\/biden-fbi-recording-trump-campaign-calls-is-a-high-tech-watergate-but-worse\/\">Biden FBI Recording Trump Campaign Calls Is A High-Tech Watergate But Worse<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Grassley said Smith subpoenaed \u201c87 Trump White House phones, knowing they\u2019d include communications with Members of Congress.\u201d Grassley accused Smith of failing to \u201cfilter out Speech or Debate privileged information, even though he and his team knew they\u2019d scoop it up with their requests.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Constitution\u2019s Speech or Debate clause prohibits a member of Congress\u2019 legislative work from being targeted by the executive branch. Grassley accused Smith and his team of failing to take those concerns and risks seriously and, instead, dismissed them.<\/p>\n<p>Grassley said that Smith\u2019s staff were \u201caware of Speech or Debate concerns and targeting congressional toll records\u201d and in some messages discussed \u201chow they can circumvent the statutory barriers Congress put in place to obtain congressional toll records.\u201d Notably, one set of messages obtained by Grassley show Smith\u2019s deputy, J.P. Cooney, saying he was an \u201cadvocate for repealing the clause.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Federalist CEO and co-founder Sean Davis <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/seanmdav\/status\/2104934497221280018?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said in a statement<\/a> that \u201cWe are still working to determine which of our reporters were targeted by Jack Smith and which journalistic communications he and his thugs seized.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Federalist\u2019s team of investigative reporters exposed the Russian collusion hoax. We exposed the Kavanaugh hoax. We exposed the Ukraine impeachment hoax. And The Federalist\u2019s Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway wrote the definitive account of how Democrats seized control of election infrastructure and destroyed the integrity of American elections in 2020,\u201d Davis said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor over a decade, The Federalist has fearlessly exposed Deep State corruption and DOJ lies and lawfare. Spying on us was apparently part of Jack Smith\u2019s plot to get revenge against us,\u201d he continued. <\/p>\n<p>Davis says The Federalist \u201cwill explore all legal options going forward to deal with Jack Smith\u2019s lawless and un-American attempts to silence us by spying on us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grassley also revealed that while Smith claimed to be focused on January 6, 2021, his <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >team subpoenaed records dating back years<\/a>, including \u201cinformation on Republican groups as early as 2019 and as late as 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou see, that\u2019s why you must do if your case is designed to map out and target the entire Republican Party,\u201d Grassley said. <\/p>\n<p>As Grassley closed his remarks, he observed that \u201cIn the end, Smith indicted one person \u2014 President Trump \u2014 but successfully mapped out the Republican apparatus\u201d \u2014 including members of the media.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jack Smith obtained media communications, including The Federalist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":2672644,"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\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-29-at-10.13.43-AM-scaled-e1790691336934-1024x577.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[12646,6919,5157,5894,3634],"class_list":["post-2672643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-espionage","tag-federalist","tag-journalism","tag-politics","tag-trump"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-29-at-10.13.43-AM-scaled-e1790691336934-1024x577.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2672643","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\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2672643"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2672643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2672651,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2672643\/revisions\/2672651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2672644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2672643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2672643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2672643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}