Special counsel who obtained Sen. Mike Lee’s texts as part of Jan. 6 probe invited to testify before Senate

SALT LAKE CITY — Former special counsel Jack Smith has been invited to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of its review of the Biden administration’s investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, extended the invitation to Smith, who previously brought criminal charges against President Donald Trump, the committee confirmed to the Deseret News on Monday. The hearing is tentatively scheduled to take place on Sept. 22.

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The testimony comes as part of the committee’s Arctic Frost investigation reviewing Smith’s probe into the Jan. 6 attack, during which a crowd of Trump supporters breached the U.S. Capitol in an effort to stop the certification of Trump’s election loss against former President Joe Biden.

During his probe, Smith obtained the phone records of 44 members of Congress in a manner that Republicans say violated the Justice Department’s protocols.

“In the process of a deeply flawed, weaponized investigation, Jack Smith subpoenaed phone toll records from a dozen senators, scooped up text messages from over 40 members of Congress, and subpoenaed the private communications and financial records of hundreds of other Republican entities and individuals. He needs to answer directly to Congress for his actions,” Grassley said in a statement. “Smith must be honest and forthcoming in his answers, because the American people deserve nothing less than full transparency and accountability.”

The committee unveiled earlier this summer that Smith had “secretly obtained” the phone records as part of his probe in an act the Republican senators allege may infringe upon constitutional guardrails.

Among those who had their phone records obtained was Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who sits on the Judiciary Committee.

“Jack Smith’s snooping didn’t stop with members of Congress, but extended to other law-abiding Americans across the country — a symptom of the deep state’s complete disregard for citizens to be ‘secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects’ as guaranteed by the Constitution,” Lee said in a statement to the Deseret News. “The American people deserve answers.”

It’s not yet clear whether Smith will agree to testify. He previously appeared before the House Judiciary Committee in January.

The invitation comes as part of a months-long investigation into Smith’s tenure as special counsel, a position he held from November 2022 to January 2025.

The Senate Judiciary Committee released documents last month showing Smith’s team subpoenaed the National Archives and Records Administration in June 2023 to provide all text messages from phones associated with personnel serving in the first Trump administration. The request sought text messages sent from October 2020 through Jan. 20, 2021.

That subpoena was issued in June 2023, and fulfilled on Aug. 21, 2023.

However, investigators working under Smith’s team allegedly began accessing the records before the information could be filtered and reviewed to ensure only team members working on the Jan. 6 probe could access the records. At the time, Smith had another team investigating classified documents found at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

Grassley’s report last month said the review of lawmakers’ text messages “was done without waiting for the Filter Team to evaluate and segregate privileged information.”

“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 in a statement last month. “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.”