Jack Smith team read messages between Trump officials, dozens of lawmakers of both parties: ‘Ran roughshod over the Constitution’

WASHINGTON — More than 40 members of Congress had their text messages viewed by former special counsel Jack Smith’s team amid a probe into President Trump, a move that Republicans say “ran roughshod over the Constitution.”

The Department of Justice released records to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Tuesday revealing that the special counsel’s office had accessed communications between Trump White House personnel and 44 lawmakers from both parties.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ); Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the current ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee; current Los Angeles mayor and former Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.); and former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), now the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, were just some of the new names whose messages were seen.

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Forty-four members of Congress had their text messages viewed by former special counsel Jack Smith’s team amid a probe into President Trump, in an move that Republicans say “ran roughshod over the Constitution.”

Grassley himself, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), House Majority Leader Steve Scalies (R-La.) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) were also targeted.

Asked during a December 2025 congressional deposition whether his team looked at “the content of text messages” during his twin probes into the 45th and 47th president, Smith answered, “No.”

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Emails from former special counsel Jack Smith’s team where they discussed obtaining texts from “White House phones.”

“This is yet another grotesque example of the Biden administration’s weaponization of the Justice Department,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said in a statement. “At this point, no one should be shocked by Jack Smith’s recklessness and blatant abuse of power, but they should be outraged.”

Grassley’s office previously disclosed subpoenas of 430 Republican individuals or groups for various records — in addition to phone logs from more than a dozen GOPers — as part of what the Iowa Republican claimed was a “fishing expedition” on Smith’s part.

The special counsel’s office had established a so-called “Filter Team” to ensure they weren’t accessing privileged documents or violating officials’ constitutional rights when reviewing messages that had been sought from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

The messages between the lawmakers and White House employees were sent October 2020 and Jan. 20, 2021.

Those Trump administration personnel included former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Dan Scavino, first daughter Ivanka Trump, Stephen Miller, Peter Navarro, current CIA Director John Ratcliffe, current FBI Director Kash Patel, Rudy Giuliani, Kellyanne Conway and then-Vice President Mike Pence.

The filter team was supposed to evaluate evidence obtained as part of “Project Coconut,” which was looking into Trump’s efforts to reverse the 2020 election, and “Project Cranberry,” which concerned Trump’s alleged hoarding of national security documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

An Aug. 21, 2023, internal DOJ email included in the records Grassley received shows that Smith’s team discussed directly obtaining “54 excel files with text messages from White House phones,” which were placed in a shared drive.

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The DOJ revealed Tuesday that the special counsel’s office had accessed the communications between Trump White House personnel and lawmakers from both parties.“All communication to/from the Filter Team must go through the Coordinator,” another DOJ document stated. “No materials shall be disclosed to the investigative team without approval of a filter team attorney.”

However, Assistant Attorney General Patrick Davis told Grassley in an accompanying letter Tuesday that Smith’s team “bypassed the Filter Team and directly accessed these text messages. The FBI then identified the people whose phone numbers sent or received the texts.”

“Jack Smith’s criminal investigation of President Trump was a runaway train that had no brakes,” Grassley said Tuesday.

“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,” he noted.

“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.”

Attorneys for Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://nypost.com/2026/07/14/us-news/jack-smith-team-read-messages-between-trump-officials-dozens-of-lawmakers-of-both-parties/

America’s Socialists Have Already Lost --They just haven’t figured it out yet.

 How did you spend America’s 250th birthday? New York’s socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, spent it lecturing America about racism and xenophobia while his wife attended an Islamic “spiritual wellness” retreat.

It was another reminder of the ugly rise of socialism in America.

Last month, a socialist named Darializa Avila Chevalier won a congressional primary in New York despite praising communism and calling America a “f—king disgrace.” In Colorado, socialist college student Melat Kiros defeated long-sitting Democratic representative Diana DeGette in her primary race. (RELATED: When the ‘World-City’ Votes Socialist)

This has set off alarm bells across the country as conservatives gear up to fight another generation of socialists. (RELATED: The Return of Socialism and the GOP’s Golden Opportunity)

Socialism is having a moment in America, but as the sheer toxicity of the actual socialists shows, it’s likely to be short-lived.

But this concern, while understandable, is also overstated. Socialism is having a moment in America, but as the sheer toxicity of the actual socialists shows, it’s likely to be short-lived. (RELATED: Don’t Panic Over Democratic Socialism)

For starters, the socialists have mostly been winning Democratic primaries, not elections to Congress or even the town dogcatcher office. This indicates that Democrats are moving further left — which we already knew — but not the country as a whole.

In fact, only a little over a quarter of Americans say they’d even consider voting for a democratic socialist. Under a third said they see socialism in a “very favorable” or even “somewhat favorable” light.

Imagine that: decades of university indoctrination, hip socialist influencers, righteous anger over corporate abuses — yet socialism remains radioactive to the vast majority.

Americans vote not just at the ballot box but with their feet, and they’ve been overwhelmingly moving to states that are less socialist. By far, the biggest trend in American migration is people leaving blue states for red states, seeking lower taxes and lighter regulatory burdens. (RELATED: ‘Reverse Okies’ and Blue State Refugees — Another Wave Appears To Be Building)

It’s true that some of these red tape refugees bring leftist political beliefs with them — “don’t California my Texas!” — but socialism? At least in practice, they’re rejecting it.

It’s worth remembering that America has had far more resounding socialist moments than the mayor of New York and a handful of primary-candidate fruitcakes. Bernie Sanders became the first out-and-proud socialist to win a Senate seat in 2006. Socialist ideas in general got more traction in the 1930s and 1960s than today.

Thousands of socialists have been elected to city councils, mayoral offices, and even Congress since Karl Marx put poisonous pen to bloodstained paper. Yet a socialist consensus has never taken hold in America, and this is what counts.

The U.S. no longer has an adversary like the Soviet Union to remind us why socialism doesn’t work. Instead, an ex-socialist adversary (China) now mimics our market-oriented policies.

China used to be socialist, but in the 1980s it adopted market reforms that it dubbed “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” Today, this essentially means state-directed capitalism, very different from what the Mamdanis of the world support.

Don’t expect American leftists to learn from China’s failed socialist experiment, which begat Mao Tse-tung and mass murder. But if modern China gets its way, then the U.S. will become even more dependent on Chinese exports, prices will go up, and American jobs will vanish.

I doubt today’s pampered socialists will be okay with that. Global competition has a way of clarifying who Americans are, and competition with China should remind us that we succeed when we’re not socialist. (RELATED: Champagne Socialism Comes to America)

Look at space. NASA spent decades building rockets by committee. Then a private company, SpaceX, came along and did it faster, cheaper, and better — landing boosters upright like something out of science fiction. Let’s see China do that.

And when China’s state-controlled tech giant Huawei proved a threat to American national security by controlling too much of the globe’s AI and 5G capabilities, the Trump administration waved through a merger between two American companies, HPE and Juniper Networks. This created a new U.S. tech company with the global scale to leave Huawei in the dust.

It was a reminder of who we are. Americans value competition, creativity, freedom, innovation, and the progress of free enterprise.

It’s why we’re the world’s number one exporter of energy. It’s why we lead the world on AI. And there’s nothing a few dingy socialists can do about it.

In his 4th of July speech, Mamdani declared that America is a place of “monopolies that dominate every industry,” “oligarchs who buy elections,” and “masked agents terrorizing our streets.”

That dystopia might exist in his mind. But for most Americans, it calls to mind a certain Russian experiment in socialism they’d prefer to leave in the past.

https://spectator.org/americas-socialists-have-already-lost/

What Elissa Slotkin Just Said About Democratic Women Makes Them All Look Really REALLY Bad

Elissa Slotkin delivered a head-scratcher of a story during a recent appearance, describing Michigan women who supposedly feel the need to deceive their husbands about their plans just to get involved in her campaign. 

Did she really think that was a good look for Democratic women? 

Wow.

She painted a picture of wives inventing cover stories for heading out on seemingly harmless errands, all so they could secretly volunteer without their spouses knowing.

This really is pretty horrible, we're not sure why any woman would put up with a politician pushing such a condescending and ugly lie abou tthem.

Watch:

See?

Just bad.

Big time.

Things that make you go hrm.

https://twitchy.com/samj/2026/07/14/slotkin-claims-women-are-so-scared-of-their-husbands-they-lie-about-voting-democrat-n2430217

Well, This Takes Cojones: Mexico Files Criminal Complaints in US Over Deaths of Its Illegals

From the "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off" files comes this: Mexico has started filing criminal complaints with state prosecutors in the United States over the deaths of its illegals while in U.S. custody or during immigration enforcement operations. 

Yes, the country known for providing its citizens a handy-dandy list on how to enter the U.S. illegally and take full advantage of our welfare and education systems is mad that the Trump administration is dealing with the illegal alien crisis Mexico helped create.

Mexico's Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday that criminal complaints had begun to be lodged with prosecutors in several states and cease-and-desist orders were being sent to U.S. detention facilities that house Mexican illegals.

Mexico has begun filing criminal complaints with state prosecutors in the United States over the deaths of its citizens in U.S. immigration custody and during enforcement operations, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Mexico's government has also sent cease-and-desist letters to U.S. detention centers where Mexican nationals have died, the ministry added in a statement.

Per one U.S. media report, at least 14 Mexican nationals have died while in custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and "several others" died during enforcement operations. 

Dems Embarrass Themselves on ICE Shooting - Plus Their Party's Shutdowns May Have Led to a Big Issue

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Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum signaled last Friday that her country would seek to escalate its complaints over the deaths, saying the U.S. "cannot turn a blind eye to the Mexicans who have died."

During a Tuesday morning press conference, Sheinbaum revealed that the filings had begun and compared the recent shooting death in Houston of Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo to an execution.

Sheinbaum: "I want to tell you that, today, the Foreign Ministry will file complaints with the U.S. Department of Justice and state prosecutor offices in the United States over the deaths of 17 Mexican nationals, including the most recent one who was practically executed."

RedState had all the details on Araujo's death on July 7:

As RedState’s Susie Moore reported, an ICE agent shot and killed Mexican illegal alien Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston Tuesday.

The officer didn’t fire at him because he was here illegally, though; he allegedly used force because the suspect rammed the law enforcement officer’s vehicle with his own and then tried to run over him. Araujo’s family sees it differently, noting that the 52-year-old had lived here for decades, was a father, had a successful construction gig, and may have panicked over unmarked cars.

Sheinbaum said of the incident, “It’s a case that sparks outrage among all Mexicans. We cannot simply continue with diplomatic letters that have yielded no results.”

The solution here seems quite simple: Mexico stops encouraging its citizens to enter the United States illegally, cooperates with Trump administration efforts to remigrate the illegals – dare I suggest Ms. Sheinbaum tell her citizens who are here illegally to also cooperate and not resist the lawful commands of ICE agents? – and make Mexico a safe, desirable place for its citizens to live.

https://redstate.com/terichristoph/2026/07/14/this-is-rich-mexico-is-filing-criminal-complaints-in-the-us-over-deaths-of-its-illegals-n2204306

The Sara Rodriguez Campaign Just Imploded

Yesterday, Townhall reported that Wisconsin's Democratic Lt. Governor Sara Rodriguez, who is running in a crowded primary to replace outgoing Democratic Governor Tony Evers, fired her campaign manager after 'internal reviews' found major issues with the campaign's finance reports. But it seems the story is much worse than an inept or corrupt campaign manager and the Rodriguez campaign appears to be imploding in real time.

Rodriguez held a press conference yesterday to discuss the problems, and it did not go well for her.

First, a local reporter found dozens of repeat entries in Rodriguez's January campaign finance filings, each claiming the same person made the same donation on the same day.

And it turns out the Rodriguez campaign is, in a word, broke. She has only $200,000 cash on hand.

Despite that, Rodriguez said she is not exiting the race.

It's extremely hard to see how she can, when there'd be no money for the general election, especially when you look at the other financial troubles.

The Rodriguez campaign also has unpaid invoices with multiple vendors, and that she was unaware of this problem until last Thursday.

"She's in deep trouble," said Matt Henkel of Americans for Prosperity, who also noted the Rodriguez campaign is still bad at comms.

And she is. In a text to her supporters, the campaign put the wrong handle.

But, then again, what did we expect from a candidate who said she would craft the state's biennial budget in secret?

"I would say that most people are not going to stand in front of this many cameras and microphones to talk about fixing an error," Rodriguez said. "That's what I am here doing. And that's what you want to see in leadership, and what you want to see in the next governor."

And during her press conference, a train horn interrupted Rodriguez, which one social media user said is 'very fitting for this train wreck of a campaign.'

This user also said Rodriguez should fire the staffer who arranged the press conference.

It was painful to watch, even sans train horn.

Rodriguez insists she took 'swift action' to address these issues.

"Part of being a leader is about being as honest as possible, taking swift action, and doing the right thing," the image read. "This race is moving forward because the stakes are too high to sit it out. I am committed to full transparency about what happened, and I will continue working every day to ensure our positive message reaches voters across Wisconsin so we can beat Tom Tiffany in the fall. Onward!"

Tiffany, the Republican nominee, quoted this statement and blasted Rodriguez for her multiple failures.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/amy-curtis/2026/07/14/sara-rodriguez-press-conference-n2679351