{"id":919,"date":"2026-07-15T14:07:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T14:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=919"},"modified":"2026-07-15T14:07:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T14:07:00","slug":"new-docs-support-allegations-that-jack-smiths-team-violated-constitution-in-get-trump-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=919","title":{"rendered":"New Docs Support Allegations That Jack Smith’s Team Violated Constitution In Get-Trump Probe"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Special Counsel Jack Smith\u2019s office analyzed the text messages of some 40-plus Members of Congress, with newly released internal documents indicating that the lead investigators ignored the established filter team review process \u2014 a process instituted to protect attorney-client privileged communications. Those documents, released Tuesday by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, following whistleblowers tips, prove even more damning, though, to the special counsel\u2019s brazen disregard of the Constitution\u2019s Speech or Debate Clause.<\/p>\n

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On Monday, Sen. Grassley made public a and he obtained jointly with his colleague, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., as part of their oversight of the weaponization of the DOJ and FBI under the Biden Administration. That cover letter from the DOJ\u2019s Office of Legislative Affairs explained to the senators that Special Counsel Smith\u2019s team had established a filter team intended to protect privileged communications obtained during the investigators\u2019 targeting of Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

While the filter team protocols provided that \u201c[n]o materials shall be disclosed to the investigative team without approval of a filter team attorney,\u201d the DOJ\u2019s Office of Legislative Affairs explained that documents uncovered based on whistleblower disclosures revealed that the special counsel\u2019s office \u201capparently bypassed the Filter Team and directly accessed these text messages.\u201d The \u201ctext messages\u201d referenced were \u201ctext messages between White House personnel and several Senators and Representatives,\u201d namely 44 different Members of Congress.<\/p>\n

The records released yesterday by Sen. Grassley included a cache of 90 pages of emails and slides detailing the filter team process. An email dated May 27, 2022, from a contractor providing technical support to the special counsel\u2019s office to Thomas Windom \u2014 an attorney working with Smith \u2014 proves particularly significant.<\/p>\n

In that email, the contractor thanked Windom and his colleague, Kelly Zusman, for \u201cjumping on an early call this morning to discuss\u201d the \u201cFilter Review workflow\u201d related to the special counsel\u2019s investigation into Trump. The summary that followed detailed the internal process and made clear that \u201cthe Filter Review Team\u201d would make privilege determination before documents were reviewed by the investigative teams. The email stressed that if the filter team, which consisted of a group of DOJ lawyers not involved in the investigation, concluded the documents were privileged, they \u201cwill not<\/em> be sent to the Substantive Team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Windom apparently initially followed that procedure, with an email dated June 26, 2023, showing the special counsel attorney forwarding to the contractor \u201ca new NARA production for upload,\u201d although why NARA provided the responsive documents directly to an investigator, as opposed to the filter team, is unclear. However, a later email dated August 21, 2023, shows NARA sending Windom a link to additional records, namely 54 spreadsheets, which include text messages of Members of Congress. Additional emails from the same date show that Windom downloaded those records and shared them with other members of the investigative team.<\/p>\n

As Grassley explained:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

NARA provided the texts to [the Special Counsel\u2019s Office] on August 21, 2023.\u00a0Within half an hour,\u00a0<\/strong>one of Smith\u2019s senior lawyers, Thomas Windom, downloaded the texts and,\u00a0within one hour<\/strong>, other members of Smith\u2019s investigative team downloaded and began reviewing the texts. It appears the review was done without waiting for the Filter Team to evaluate and segregate privileged information.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The apparent bypassing of the filter team by the Special Counsel Office is but the latest scandal surrounding Jack Smith\u2019s crusade against Trump \u2014 but it also represents only a portion of the problem revealed in the latest document dump: The records released yesterday show that the filter team utterly failed to consider the Speech or Debate privilege held by senators and congressmen.<\/p>\n

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Specifically, presentation slides that summarized the filter team\u2019s purpose and process note that the task was to \u201creview information gathered from email accounts and devices for attorney-client privilege and work product information.\u201d The opening slide also notes that \u201cthe investigation team presented a filter protocol,\u201d but then none of the slides even mention the Speech or Debate privilege.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This proves particularly outrageous because Windom, who on May 27, 2022 coordinated with the outside contractor concerning the filter review process, had just ten days earlier been alerted to controlling D.C. Circuit precedent that requires <\/em>Members of Congress to be given an opportunity to \u201cidentify and assert the privilege with respect to legislative materials\u00a0before\u00a0their compelled disclosure to Executive agents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Specifically, in what has become known as \u201cthe PIN email,\u201d Windom, along with other special counsel colleagues, were told in an email that \u201cthere is some litigation risk regarding whether compelled disclosure of toll records of a member\u2019s legislative calls violates the Speech or Debate Clause in the D.C. Circuit.\u201d That email then cited the controlling precedent of United States v.\u00a0Rayburn House\u00a0Off. Bldg., Room 2113<\/em>, 497 F.3d 654, 662\u00a0(D.C. Cir. 2007), highlighting the Court\u2019s holding that \u201c[t]he bar on compelled disclosure is absolute.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Rayburn <\/em>went further and held that before obtaining access to legislative materials \u2014 something broadly defined in the law to include communications related to legislative duties \u2014 \u201ca Member of Congress must be provided the opportunity to identify protected materials and assert their Speech or Debate privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet the special counsel\u2019s investigative team apparently approved a filter team protocol that ignored any Speech or Debate privilege \u2014 even though they knew <\/em>the D.C. Circuit required Members of Congress be given an opportunity to assert that constitutional privilege. And at least when it comes to attorney-client Privilege, the Justice Department\u2019s manual provides that filter protocols should \u201cbe tailored to the facts of each case and the requirements and judicial preference and precedents of each district . . . \u201d<\/p>\n

Not only did the special counsel\u2019s office ignore the Speech or Debate Clause when it came to filtering material obtained with subpoenas, it hid from the courts issuing those subpoenas, as well as the accompanying non-disclosure orders, that Smith was targeting the toll records \u2014 and apparently text messages too \u2014 of U.S. Senators and Congressmen.<\/p>\n

With this evidence only now coming out, one must wonder what other rights the special counsel\u2019s office trampled. But one thing is clear: Sen. Grassley is wise to wait to call Jack Smith to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee until the Iowa senator has obtained all of the relevant documents identified by the whistleblowers.<\/p>\n

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Newly released internal documents indicate that Jack Smith’s office ignored the established filter-team review process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200],"tags":[958,251,204,345,3,807,2154],"class_list":["post-919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawfare","tag-chuck-grassley","tag-congress","tag-constitution","tag-department-of-justice","tag-donald-trump","tag-jack-smith","tag-ron-johnson"],"yoast_head":"\nNew Docs Support Allegations That Jack Smith’s Team Violated Constitution In Get-Trump Probe - Property Transition Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=919\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Docs Support Allegations That Jack Smith’s Team Violated Constitution In Get-Trump Probe - 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