Trump prosecutor Jack Smith reviewed texts from 44 US lawmakers, Republican senators say

Source: Reuters

July 14, 2026 5:40 PM EDT Updated 11 hours ago


WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) - Former U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith's team reviewed text messages from ​44 Republican and Democratic members of Congress during his investigation into President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the ‌2020 election, according to two Republican senators.

The records came from subpoenas to the National Archives and Records Administration for text messages from government phones used by Trump and a range of his top officials and advisers from October 2020 until the end of his first term in ​January 2021.

The records Smith's team obtained included text messages that 40 Republican lawmakers and four Democrats exchanged with Trump ​officials, according to Republican Senators Chuck Grassley, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and ⁠Ron Johnson, the chair of a Senate investigative panel.

The new material underscores how many senior figures in the U.S. government ​were examined as Smith investigated Trump's attempts to reverse his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 and his alleged mishandling of ​classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort during Biden's administration. Both cases were dropped after Trump won the 2024 election. The officials included Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows and then-Vice President Mike Pence, who resisted Trump’s pressure to block congressional certification of the 2020 election results.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trump-prosecutor-jack-smith-reviewed-texts-44-us-lawmakers-republican-senators-2026-07-14/