FBI Illicitly Spied On 44 Members Of Congress In Scheme To Prosecute Trump

A plot by FBI officials to prosecute President Donald Trump for questioning the results of the 2020 election involved bypassing legal protocols to spy on the communication of 44 members of Congress, a legal watchdog reveals.

The non-profit public interest law firm Judicial Watch reports in a statement that “Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigative team obtained and reviewed text messages from 44 Members of Congress as part of the Biden Department of Justice’s (DOJ) criminal investigation into President Trump.”

“Evidence shows the investigators bypassed a required Filter Team review process, violating investigative protocols and potentially infringing on constitutional guardrails,” Judicial Watch reveals.

“The bombshell discovery comes in new records released… by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) as part of their ongoing Arctic Frost oversight. Grassley and Johnson requested the records from DOJ after receiving legally protected whistleblower disclosures,” Judicial Watch reports.

“The Justice Department’s letter to the chairmen and the provided records indicate Smith’s investigative team circumvented its own filter review process, which was established to protect privileged materials from being swept up in a criminal prosecution, and directly accessed the content of texts sent by Republican and Democrat senators and members of the House of Representatives to White House officials during Trump’s first term. Communications from Members of Congress pertaining to their official legislative duties are protected from criminal prosecution under the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause. Bypassing a Filter Team evades consideration of additional privileges, such as attorney-client privilege,” Judical Watch writes.

The group notes “both Grassley and Johnson’s text messages were obtained by Smith’s team.”

“Jack Smith’s criminal investigation of President Trump was a runaway train that had no brakes. Based on the information that’s been produced to me and Senator Johnson, Biden DOJ and FBI investigators apparently ignored their own routine investigative protocols to obtain and review work-related messages from me and dozens of my Republican and Democrat colleagues who were outside the scope of the government’s investigation,” Grassley said. “I hope my Democrat colleagues, several of whom had their own texts swept up, finally put partisanship aside and recognize the severity of these actions. Smith’s team ran roughshod over the Constitution even after repeated warnings. Jack Smith has answering to do, and I intend to have him before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the coming months to hold him accountable.”

“This is yet another grotesque example of the Biden administration’s weaponization of the Justice Department,” Johnson said. “Jack Smith’s team acted with impunity as they disregarded their own protocols to obtain and access White House text messages, including messages to and from 44 Members of Congress. At this point, no one should be shocked by Jack Smith’s recklessness and blatant abuse of power, but they should be outraged.”

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