Congress
Jack Smith obtained text messages from 44 members of Congress
Former special counsel Jack Smith obtained text messages that 44 members of Congress sent to senior White House officials during the final weeks of President Donald Trump’s first term, Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley revealed Tuesday.
The latest exchanges were part of a trove of materials that the National Archives turned over to Smith’s team following a subpoena for White House records stretching from Oct. 2020 to Jan. 2021. Smith’s top deputies received the materials in August 2023, just weeks after securing a grand jury indictment against Trump — and, according to internal emails Grassley released Tuesday, indicated they were quickly preparing to share them with Trump’s legal team as part of the pre-trial “discovery” process.”
Grassley’s release of these materials is part of a broader effort by the Iowa Republican and other Trump allies to portray Smith as a reckless or overaggressive prosecutor in his pursuit of criminal cases against Trump during the Biden administration, which many GOP lawmakers believe were politically motivated.
Grassley was already on the warpath for Smith after learning that investigators obtained his call records as part of Smith’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election, which culminated in the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Jack Smith has answering to do, and I intend to have him before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the coming months to hold him accountable,” said Grassley.
A spokesman for Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Smith testified to the House Judiciary Committee both privately and publicly earlier this year.
The newly disclosed records show that a wide range of lawmakers were communicating with the White House in the final months of Trump’s first term — from Grassley himself along with 19 other senators, to top House Republicans like then-GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy.
Several exchanges with Democrats, including Sen. Cory Booker and then-Rep. Karen Bass, were also among the subpoenaed materials.
Grassley is also seeking to cast the revelation that members’ text messages were divulged to investigators as a potential breach of Congress’ constitutional “speech or debate” protection that prevents the Executive Branch from prying into lawmakers’ legislative business.
Unlike executive privilege, which protects a president’s communication from disclosure in many cases, speech-or-debate privilege is explicitly mentioned in the constitution — part of the founders’ effort to prevent the Executive Branch from using its prosecutorial power to bend legislators to its will.
Notably, Smith’s investigators laboredfor more than a year to obtain text messages and emails sent by Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) after the FBI seized his phone in August 2022. Perry sued, contending that his phone contained thousands of messages protected by the speech or debate clause, and slowed Smith’s team for more than a year while they litigated the contours of the privilege.
Eventually prosecutors won access to about 1,600 of Perry’s messages that judges deemed unrelated to Perry’s work as a legislator.
Perry is among the lawmakers whose text messages were obtained in the two-month window before Trump’s first term ended.
Vice President JD Vance plans to meet with House Republicans Wednesday afternoon at the Capitol, according to two people granted anonymity to describe the plans ahead of a public announcement.
Vance postponed earlier plans to address a Tuesday morning House GOP conference meeting, instead traveling to Texas to tape an episode of the Joe Rogan podcast. His planned visit Wednesday comes as Republican leaders seek to rally support behind a new $80 billion party-line effort to fund the Pentagon, deliver aid to farmers and enact parts of the controversial elections bill pushed by President Donald Trump.
Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan, the GOP Conference chair, is hosting the 3 p.m. members-only event where Vance is expected to make remarks.
House Republican leaders and White House officials are coalescing around a roughly $80 billion policy package as they prepare for a final summer push to enact party-line budget reconciliation legislation.
House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said the bill would pump $67 billion into Pentagon programs and $11 billion to farm assistance, without including offsetting spending cuts. Three other people granted anonymity to describe the negotiations confirmed the outlines of the deal, which is also likely to include several billion dollars in election grants meant to replicate portions of the SAVE America Act that President Donald Trump is pushing for.
The lack of offsets threatens to enrage GOP fiscal hawks, who want at least the agriculture portion of the bill to be paid for. But in a nod to those fiscal concerns, the farm aid portion of the bill shrunk from earlier discussions of as much as $20 billion.
Speaker Mike Johnson declined to get into specifics about the bill but said he was focused on “building consensus one step at a time.” Several meetings of key GOP officials took place through the day Tuesday, including one at the White House that Johnson, Rogers and other key Republicans attended.
The $67 billion defense request is roughly what the White House asked for in a recent emergency supplemental funding package but falls well short of the $350 billion military infusion Trump has called for.
The House Budget Committee has set a Thursday morning markup of the fiscal blueprint that launches the budget reconciliation process. Under panel rules, that blueprint would have to be released no later than 10 a.m. Wednesday.
“We’re going through a number of different ideas, and we’ll reveal the details when when they’re ready to be revealed publicly,” Johnson said. “But right now, it’s member-to-member, and the White House is directly engaged, and we’re grateful for that because it’s a team effort.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told reporters the budget framework could come to the floor next week if it clears the Budget Committee Thursday. He said the annual defense policy bill, which GOP leaders hoped to advance last month until an intraparty rebellion derailed that plan, could also return to the floor next week.
Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.
Billionaire investor Leon Black is scheduled for a Sept. 3 deposition in front of House Oversight lawmakers who want to press him under oath about his ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
A spokesperson for House Oversight Republicans said Tuesday attorneys for the co-founder of Apollo Global Management had confirmed his appearance date. Black’s legal team will also transfer at the end of next week nondisclosure agreements the investor allegedly had with women tied to Epstein, the spokesperson said, which he had previously told the committee he will not discuss.
Black has stoked high bipartisan interest in Congress’ investigation into Epstein and the government’s investigation into the late sex offender. Oversight lawmakers last month issued two subpoenas in the middle of a voluntary interview with Black after the investor refused to answer questions about the potential NDAs.
“We believe that information is vital to our investigation,” Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) had told reporters following the subpoena issuance. “We want to know, was Jeffrey Epstein involved in the NDAs? … Was he involved in awarding [of] funds to the women for the NDAs? What was the reason for the NDAs?”
Black at the June interview said he had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes over the time frame he paid Epstein tens of millions of dollars, though he did acknowledge he was aware of Epstein’s 2008 sex crime conviction.
Unlike the voluntary interview, Black’s deposition will be videotaped and under oath.
- Vance to meet with House Republicans Wednesday
- Trump says US will blockade Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and charge ships for safe passage
- ‘Too cute by half’: Senators brush off Trump’s suggestions for honoring Graham
- Democrats divided on whether to make daylight saving time permanent
- Luna signals she will end revolt, vote to allow the House to debate legislation
- Ron Johnson is full speed ahead on Reconciliation 3.0
- The foods most likely to carry diarrhea-causing parasite cyclospora (and which are safe)
- How to hold Trump accountable: Sue, baby, sue
- Investing in Trump securities involves the risk of (huge) loss
- GOP losing trust on affordability, says Americans for Prosperity
-
Politics1 year agoFormer ‘Squad’ members launching ‘Bowman and Bush’ YouTube show
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoLuigi Mangione acknowledges public support in first official statement since arrest
-
The Josh Fourrier Show2 years agoDOOMSDAY: Trump won, now what?
-
Politics1 year agoFormer Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron launches Senate bid
-
Uncategorized2 years ago
Bob Good to step down as Freedom Caucus chair this week
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoPete Hegseth’s tenure at the Pentagon goes from bad to worse
-
Politics1 year agoBlue Light News’s Editorial Director Ryan Hutchins speaks at Blue Light News’s 2025 Governors Summit
-
The Dictatorship10 months agoMike Johnson sums up the GOP’s arrogant position on military occupation with two words