Mike Lee
Role at the time: U.S. senator from Utah and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee; co-sponsor with Sen. Chris Coons of the NDO Fairness Act
Statement summary
In his questioning of Smith, Sen. Mike Lee said the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section had warned that going after members' phone records carried litigation risks because of constitutional privileges, and that Smith never told Chief Judge James Boasberg that he was "targeting 19 members of a coordinate branch of government." Smith replied that Boasberg signed the nondisclosure orders, not the subpoenas, and that under department policy his office did not tell the judge whose toll records were sought. Lee said he and Sen. Chris Coons have a bipartisan NDO Fairness Act, that "There should be an articulated basis for secrecy when you're asking for a gag order," and that Smith's conduct "arguably makes what Richard Nixon did in Watergate look like a Sunday picnic."
“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.”
Senate Judiciary Committee's archived video of the September 29, 2026 hearing. Sen. Mike Lee asked Smith about the Public Integrity Section's warnings, the nondisclosure orders and what Smith's office told Chief Judge James Boasberg, and described the NDO Fairness Act.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
The case asks whether the collection of members' phone records and messages was proper. Lee said the Public Integrity Section had warned of litigation risks, that Smith "never actually told Chief Judge Boasberg that you were targeting 19 members of a coordinate branch of government," and that the conduct "arguably makes what Richard Nixon did in Watergate look like a Sunday picnic." That rejects the collection as improper, so we labeled it Condemned.