Overview
- The Justice Department records released Tuesday show the special counsel’s investigative team reviewed the contents of White House text-message files that included communications tied to 44 current and former members of Congress.
- Those messages were obtained from a National Archives production covering October 2020 through January 20, 2021, rather than from lawmakers’ personal devices or carrier records.
- A DOJ summary says the team apparently bypassed the department’s Filter Team, and internal emails from Aug. 21, 2023 show prosecutors downloaded and circulated 54 spreadsheet files of the NARA text-message production.
- The disclosures conflict with Jack Smith’s Dec. 17, 2025 House deposition in which he said investigators had obtained only toll records and had not read the contents of lawmakers’ texts.
- The released records are heavily redacted and do not reproduce all messages, and Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson have published the material and demanded DOJ explanations and further congressional oversight.