Durbin says the toll-record subpoenas used a "legal procedure" "regularly deployed by federal prosecutors"
U.S. senator from Illinois and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee
“For reasons that aren't clear to me at all, we're here today to discuss Jack Smith's role in a legal procedure, a procedure created by Congress and regularly deployed by federal prosecutors to collect the toll records of people President Trump contacted in his efforts to overturn the election of 2020. ... Special Counsel Jack Smith investigated this criminal effort by President Trump to overturn the election. So it's not surprising that Mr. Smith subpoenaed the call records of those the President tried to enlist in his conspiracy. To the extent the committee has questions about this, it should be former Special Counsel Smith testifying as a witness today before this committee, not three telecom companies who responded to legally issued subpoenas.”
Source and context
Original video
About this source
Senate Judiciary Committee's archived video of the February 10, 2026 subcommittee hearing with representatives of AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon and two former prosecutors. Durbin, the committee's ranking member, spoke before Chairman Grassley.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Official statement
About this source
The committee Democrats' release of excerpts from Durbin's opening statement at the February 10, 2026 subcommittee hearing. The wording of his delivered remarks differs slightly from the excerpts.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Official statement
About this source
The committee majority's release of Grassley's prepared opening statement at the February 10, 2026 subcommittee hearing, including his count of subpoenas to Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
Durbin spoke at the first of the Republican-led committee's Arctic Frost hearings, held by the Privacy, Technology, and the Law Subcommittee with witnesses from AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. Smith was not a witness. Durbin said he had written to Chairman Grassley asking that Smith testify under oath in public.
After the quotation
Durbin then quoted Smith's House testimony about the subpoenas for Republican senators' call records: "I did not choose those members. President Trump did." Grassley, in his opening remarks, said Smith's team obtained non-disclosure orders so members could not intervene.
How this statement is classified
Case context: Were members of Congress's phone records and text messages properly obtained in the Arctic Frost and Jack Smith investigations?
The label describes this statement’s response within the context above.
Why this label?
Durbin described the toll-record subpoenas as a routine legal procedure used against people Trump tried to enlist, not as improper conduct. That defends the collection as proper, so we labeled it Defended or excused.
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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