{"id":134108,"date":"2026-01-22T21:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T21:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/134108\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T21:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T21:53:09","slug":"did-you-target-my-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/134108\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Did you target my records?’"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 A Texas Republican congressman tore into former special counsel Jack Smith<\/a>\u00a0during a Wednesday hearing\u00a0after learning that his phone records were among more than a dozen seized amid the Trump prosecutor\u2019s probe of 2020 election interference.<\/p>\n

Smith maintained over the course of the more than five-hour House Judiciary Committee hearing that he pursued his investigation without \u201cpartisan loyalties\u201d or \u201cregrets\u201d about the first prosecution of a former US president.<\/p>\n

Follow The Post\u2019s live coverage of President Trump and national politics for the latest news and analysis<\/a><\/p>\n

Few new details emerged from the ex-special counsel\u2019s testimony, but the venue provided an opportunity for Judiciary Republicans to interrogate Smith about his decision to\u00a0obtain sitting lawmakers\u2019 phone metadata without their knowledge.<\/p>\n

\"Rep.\u201cDid you target my records and subpoena my phone?\u201d Rep. Chip Roy said to Smith during questioning. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you target my records and subpoena my phone?\u201d Rep. Chip Roy fumed at Smith, brandishing a poster board behind him of at least 14 Republicans who also had their call logs subpoenaed.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy understanding is your records were subpoenaed by prosecutors before I became special counsel,\u201d Smith responded to Roy, while elsewhere in his testimony acknowledging that others, including\u00a0House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), were targeted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned for the first time a few weeks ago that my phone records were indeed targeted,\u201d Roy revealed,\u00a0displaying an internal government email on a TV in the hearing room.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe called AT&T, and we\u2019ve learned they were given to the Department of Justice, as this email indicates, because I\u2019ve been in communication with [Rep.] Scott Perry [R-Pa.].\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis happened four years ago in May of 2022, and I couldn\u2019t object because I didn\u2019t know \u2014 I didn\u2019t know until about three weeks ago,\u201d Roy also erupted.<\/p>\n

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The former special counsel\u2019s actions \u2014 which Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has likened to a \u201cfishing expedition\u201d \u2014 were hidden because Smith filed\u00a0them under a non-disclosure order.<\/p>\n

Grassley first obtained files from whistleblowers in October \u2014 revealing the investigative steps that became\u00a0\u201cthe vehicle by which FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors could improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Iowa), one of the more than dozen lawmakers targeted, has dubbed the disclosures \u201cJoe Biden\u2019s Watergate\u201d and called for the impeachment of judges who signed off on the orders keeping them under wraps.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, several House Republicans accused Smith of violating the Constitution\u2019s\u00a0Speech and Debate clause by seeking the information, which would have included other phones contacted by the lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Many of the subpoenas sought contact information between Jan. 4 and 7 of 2021, the days immediately before and after the Capitol was breached by a mob of Trump\u2019s supporters, halting the 2020 election\u2019s certification.<\/p>\n

\u201cWas there any limits to your investigation or the investigation that preceded you, Mr. Smith?\u201d asked Roy during his line of questioning.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause as egregious as a violation of separation of powers [is], this is an egregious, an abuse of power,\u201d the Texas rep added. \u201cIt\u2019s far more concerning. You were clearly targeting American citizens for merely being conservative or supporting the president.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 A Texas Republican congressman tore into former special counsel Jack Smith\u00a0during a Wednesday hearing\u00a0after learning that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2671,287,2424,27,29,28,734],"class_list":{"0":"post-134108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-congress","9":"tag-politics","10":"tag-republicans","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-texas-headlines","13":"tag-texas-news","14":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}