Former special counsel Jack Smith told House lawmakers he lawfully obtained their cellphone data as part of his investigation into President Trump’s actions connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.
Mr. Smith, testifying Wednesday behind closed doors before the House Judiciary Committee, gave a full-throated defense of the secret data collection, which involved more than a dozen Republican senators and several Republican House members, including Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican.
Mr. Smith said their phone data was collected because the president called them on the day of the riot, when Congress was in session to certify the results of the 2020 election that Mr. Trump contested.
“January 6 was an attack on the structure of our democracy in which over 100 heroic law enforcement officers were assaulted,” Mr. Smith said, according to excerpts of his testimony obtained by The Washington Times. “Over 160 individuals later pled guilty to assaulting police officers that day. Exploiting that violence, President Trump and his associates tried to call members of Congress in furtherance of their criminal scheme, urging them to further delay certification of the 2020 election. I didn’t choose those members; President Trump did.”
Lawmakers questioned Mr. Smith for several hours about the Biden-era Arctic Frost investigation he oversaw, which led to the criminal prosecution of Mr. Trump on charges of election interference.
The investigation began in 2022 and was tasked with examining the actions of Mr. Trump and other Republicans who contested the 2020 election, which Mr. Trump contended was rigged.
The records of members of Congress were secretly subpoenaed, with most subpoenas issued beginning in May 2023, and sought data for a narrow time frame: the days before, during and after the Jan. 6 riot.
In all cases, either a grand jury or a judge ordered the phone companies to keep the collection of their records hidden from the lawmakers.
Under Arctic Frost, Mr. Smith and his legal team issued an additional 197 subpoenas seeking records and communications of more than 430 people and organizations. All appear to be Republican.
Those targeted included Trump advisers Stephen Miller and Dan Scavino, as well as the president’s son-in-law and daughter-in-law, Jared Kushner and Lara Trump, all of whom worked in the first Trump administration or the Trump campaign. Subpoenas were issued to people and businesses seeking statistical data and analysis related to Republican fundraising, as well as individual communications with several national media outlets, including CBS and Fox News.
Mr. Smith and his legal team have pushed back against lawmakers who accused them of spying, wiretapping or surveilling their phones, arguing that the records are “historical in nature and do not include the content of the calls.”
Lawmakers are furious about the undercover operation and accuse the Biden administration of spying on them for political purposes, namely, stopping Mr. Trump from winning a second White House term.
The Arctic Frost investigation explicitly sought and obtained Mr. Jordan’s cellphone data dating back to January 2020, a full 11 months before the presidential election and Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn Joseph R. Biden’s narrow win.
“They spied on President Trump. They spied on senators. Now, we just learned they spied on me. If they can do it to us, they can do it to you,” Mr. Jordan said.
Mr. Smith’s attorney, Lanny A. Breuer, told reporters that Mr. Smith showed “tremendous courage” in the face of the inquiry, which he said is part of a “retribution campaign” by congressional Republicans and the White House.
Mr. Breuer did not answer questions about newly declassified FBI emails indicating agents did not believe they had probable cause to raid Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in 2022 to look for classified documents and were pushed into executing the search warrant by Mr. Biden’s Justice Department.
Mr. Smith defended his investigation of Mr. Trump and said it was conducted in a nonpartisan fashion.
“I made my decisions in the investigation without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election. We took actions based on what the facts and the law required — the very lesson I learned early in my career as a prosecutor,” Mr. Smith told lawmakers.
Republicans want to know more about Mr. Smith’s prosecution of Mr. Trump, which spanned nearly two years and accelerated during his 2024 presidential campaign.
Mr. Smith secured felony indictments against Mr. Trump in two cases, one of them related to claims of improper handling of classified information and the other based on charges that Mr. Trump interfered with the 2020 election by contesting Mr. Biden’s narrow victories in swing states.
On Wednesday, the FBI released emails showing the Justice Department pressured the FBI to execute the Mar-a-Lago search warrant, allowing agents to conduct an unprecedented and sweeping raid of a former president’s residence at a time when Mr. Trump was considered a likely 2024 presidential candidate.
A grand jury later indicted Mr. Trump on 40 felony charges related to the documents. The case was dismissed in 2024 by a federal judge who agreed with defense attorneys that Mr. Smith had been illegally appointed by the Justice Department.
Mr. Smith dropped the election interference case after Mr. Trump’s 2024 election win.
“Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power,” Mr. Smith said. “Our investigation also developed powerful evidence that showed President Trump willfully retained highly classified documents after he left office in January 2021, storing them at his social club, including in a bathroom and a ballroom where events and gatherings took place. He then repeatedly tried to obstruct justice to conceal his continued retention of those documents.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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