Former Special Counsel Jack Smith went after more than two years’ worth of records for now-FBI Director Kash Patel as part of his investigation into President Trump, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) revealed.
Two subpoenas released by Grassley detail Smith’s team asking Verizon for Patel’s phone records between October 2020 and February 2023.
In his prepared opening statements for a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on Arctic Frost, Grassley said, “The public has a right to know how their taxpayer dollars have been used and who was involved up and down the decision-making chain.” He added that the released records “include a wish list created by Smith’s team naming 14 members of Congress for whom they wanted to seek tolling data. Some of those members are senators on this very Committee.”
The newly-released documents state that Smith’s team intended “to issue subpoenas for the toll records of certain members of Congress for the period between the 2020 election and January 20 to investigate those communication—and to establish logical evidentiary inferences regarding Trump and his surrogates’ actions and intent.”‘
Grassley added that the subpoenas targeting Patel came with non-disclosure agreements that forbade Verizon from alerting him.
A recent report revealed that Smith’s team also sought the records for Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), and then-Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), who now leads the Environmental Protection Agency.
“I’d like to seek [the Public Integrity Section’s] concurrence to get phone tolls for several MOCs who had contact with pertinent parties in our investigation,” wrote Timothy Duree, a former DOJ lawyer. “I’ll keep the timeframe tight—probably October 1, 2020, to January 31, 2021.” Other names on a list produced by Duree included former Reps. Mo Brooks, Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar, Louie Gohmert, and Jody Hice.
“And please there’s no hurry this morning, [Duree],” prosecutor Raymond Hulser wrote. “It just occurred to me that before we tell Main we are going to fire off subpoenas for so many members tolls I should make sure Jack’s aware.”
