Jack Smith's Trump probe swept up Fox News, other media communications as investigation went beyond lawmakers
FIRST ON FOX: Former special counsel Jack Smith's investigators obtained records containing communications between nearly 50 journalists and Trump administration officials — including Fox News personnel — after subpoenaing text-message records associated with dozens of White House phones during the federal election investigation of President Donald Trump, Fox News Digital has learned ahead of Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
Previous congressional disclosures showed investigators obtained records involving members of Congress. The latest records reveal the production also included communications between government officials and journalists working for some of the country's largest news organizations.
The communications appeared in records produced by the National Archives in response to a subpoena seeking material associated with 87 White House phones from Trump's first administration, according to a spokesperson for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, citing whistleblower disclosures made to the chairman.
"What will the partisan media say about this disgraceful government overreach? This wasn’t a normal prosecution by any means," Grassley challenged in comments to Fox News Digital on Tuesday, as critics have highlighted the lack of concern or coverage given to Smith’s probe by legacy media.
One organization identified Tuesday as having been swept up in the probe was the Media Research Center. Its president, David Bozell, announced in 2025 that "not one single broadcast network aired one solitary second" about Smith’s alleged spying on conservative organizations and senators following a tranche of public disclosures.
Fox News is among the organizations whose journalists appear in the records, along with CNN, CBS News — including its newsmagazine "60 Minutes" — NBC News and CNBC.
The records also include communications involving journalists from the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, Reuters, the Associated Press and NPR, as well as The Federalist and Washington Times.
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The nationally syndicated "The Mark Levin Show," hosted by Fox News host and former Reagan Justice Department chief of staff Mark Levin, also appears in the records.
The records stem from a June 2, 2023, subpoena issued by Smith’s office to the National Archives seeking text messages from phones associated with numerous officials who served in the first Trump White House.
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The Archives produced responsive records on Aug. 21, 2023, according to documents previously disclosed through congressional oversight by Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., of Arctic Frost.
Grassley and Johnson pressed the Justice Department and FBI in May for information about how potentially privileged material in that production was screened before investigators could review it.
An Aug. 21, 2023 email from assistant special counsel Thomas Windom instructed members of Smith’s team, including prosecutors and FBI personnel, to download documents associated with text messages from the White House phones.
"We are writing to determine what procedures and protocols, if any, Smith and his team used to filter privileged or potentially privileged materials from being impermissibly accessed, reviewed and/or used," Grassley and Johnson wrote.
The senators requested DOJ’s filtering protocols and the names of officials assigned to review material for privilege before it reached investigators.
The committee has identified the individual journalists whose communications appear in the records but does not plan to release their names because of privacy concerns, a Grassley spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
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The disclosure broadens questions surrounding Smith’s handling of the White House records ahead of Tuesday’s Senate hearing, including what safeguards governed investigators’ access to communications involving lawmakers, journalists and other third parties. The Judiciary Committee is expected to examine Smith’s investigative practices and the broader scope of Arctic Frost.
Fox News Digital has reached out to counsel for Smith as well as the Justice Department for comment.