Judge Unseals Filings From Jack Smith Subpoena for Lawmaker’s Phone Data

Key Points:

• A federal judge unsealed court filings related to a subpoena used by former special counsel Jack Smith to obtain call logs of lawmakers who interacted with the Trump White House around the January 6, 2021 riot, despite objections from the Justice Department.
• The filings revealed that prosecutors did not inform the court that the subpoenaed phone records belonged to members of Congress, identifying them only by phone numbers, consistent with previous disclosures since October.
• The Justice Department resisted unsealing the files, arguing it had not formally acknowledged the subpoenas, and contested that Smith’s congressional testimony did not count as public acknowledgment.
• The New York Times presented evidence suggesting the Trump administration facilitated Senator Charles Grassley’s receipt of internal law enforcement files, challenging the government's stance on secrecy.
• Judge James Boasberg ordered the release of a representative set of the subpoena files with phone numbers redacted but did not provide an opinion on what constituted the executive branch’s public acknowledgment lifting the secrecy rule.