Grassley says Smith "sought the toll records of 16 Members of Congress" and sought orders "to hide his effort from Members"
Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in his opening statement as prepared for the hearing
“Before Jack Smith, the government sought toll records from at least four Members of Congress. Jack Smith sought the toll records of 16 Members of Congress and also obtained the content of Member communications, breaching Speech or Debate. ... Accordingly, Jack Smith’s secretive efforts obtained Member toll records and, ultimately, content. Then, he sought Non-Disclosure Orders to hide his effort from Members, while also apparently failing to apprise the court of the targets.”
Source and context
Original video
About this source
Senate Judiciary Committee's archived video of the September 29, 2026 hearing. In his opening remarks Chairman Chuck Grassley gave the committee majority's account of the toll records, the text messages and the nondisclosure orders.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Official statement
About this source
The committee majority's posting of Chairman Grassley's prepared opening statement for the September 29, 2026 hearing. The wording of his delivered remarks differs slightly in places.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
Grassley opened the committee's September 29, 2026 hearing with Smith as its only witness. Before reaching the toll records, his statement gave the committee majority's account of how Arctic Frost opened in April 2022 and passed to Smith in November 2022.
After the quotation
The statement went on to say Smith subpoenaed 87 Trump White House phones, knowing they would include communications with members, 44 members in all, and that he failed to filter out Speech or Debate privileged information. Grassley delivered the toll-record figures at the hearing in nearly the same words.
How this statement is classified
Responding to: Sen. Chuck Grassley said that Jack Smith sought the toll records of 16 members of Congress, that the government sought toll records from at least four members before Smith, and that Smith's team also obtained the content of member communications, breaching the Speech or Debate Clause.
The label describes this statement’s response within the context above.
Why this label?
The case asks whether the collection of members' phone records and messages was proper. Grassley said Smith sought the toll records of 16 members, obtained the content of member communications in breach of Speech or Debate, and sought nondisclosure orders to hide the effort from members. That rejects the collection as improper and unconstitutional, so we labeled it Condemned.
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- Jack Smith
Were members of Congress's phone records and text messages properly obtained in the Arctic Frost and Jack Smith investigations?
Explore the case context, sources and public responses.
More from this case
Read the full case“for all of the outrage of my colleagues over your requesting toll records because Rudy Giuliani and other co-conspirators were calling some of the members of this body ... the Barr Justice Department sought toll records from members of Congress. Not a peep from my colleagues about that ... That apparently was okay. That apparently doesn't violate speech and debate. ... My colleagues talked about the stress on members of having their toll records requested as witnesses, not even targets.”Read statement
“It's been widely reported that you and your team issued some 44 subpoenas related to the tolling records of at least 20 Republican members of Congress, including at least eight U.S. senators, including at least four members of this committee ... it appears the actual reason for the NDOs was to avoid giving those members the opportunity to challenge the subpoenas pursuant to the protection that they enjoyed under the Constitution's speech and debate clause. ... Your team took actions to directly undermine the separation of powers at the heart of the Constitution.”Read statement
“the Department of Justice's own Public Integrity Section, it did give you explicit warnings that going after the phone records of members of the legislative branch carried what they referred to as litigation risks due to these constitutional privileges. ... you never actually told Chief Judge Boasberg that you were targeting 19 members of a coordinate branch of government, the legislative branch. ... There should be an articulated basis for secrecy when you're asking for a gag order. ... in a way that arguably makes what Richard Nixon did in Watergate look like a Sunday picnic.”Read statement