Former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigators obtained internal communications between scores of journalists and Trump administration officials during the federal election investigation of President Donald Trump.

“Jack Smith obtained internal communications from DOZENS of national media outlets communicating with government sources,” the official account for the Senate Judiciary Republicans announced in a Tuesday X post.

“What will the partisan media say about this disgraceful government overreach?” the Senate Judiciary Republicans added.

Nearly 50 journalists from national media outlets were swept up in the matter, according to a report by Fox News.

Those media outlets include Fox News, CNN, CBS News along with its 60 Minutes, NBC News, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, Reuters, Associated Press, NPR, The Mark Levin Show, The Federalist, and Washington Times.

Smith’s probe reportedly subpoenaed text-message records from dozens of White House phones and, in doing so, also obtained communications that went beyond lawmakers.

Earlier congressional disclosures showed investigators obtained records that involved members of Congress.

The messages were in National Archives records produced after a subpoena for material from 87 phones used in Trump’s first White House, a spokesperson for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said, citing whistleblower disclosures.

“What will the partisan media say about this disgraceful government overreach? This wasn’t a normal prosecution by any means,” Sen. Grassley told Fox News.

The Media Research Center was also caught up in the probe. Its president, David Bozell, noted in 2025 that none of the broadcast networks covered disclosures alleging Smith spied on conservative groups and senators.

The records came from a June 2, 2023, subpoena by Smith’s office to the National Archives seeking text messages from phones used by several officials in the first Trump White House.

The Archives reportedly handed over the requested records on August 21, 2023.

In May, Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) sought answers from the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI about how potentially privileged material was screened before investigators reviewed the records.

“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,” the senators wrote.

In an August 21, 2023 email, assistant special counsel Thomas Windom reportedly directed members of Smith’s team to download documents tied to text messages from White House phones.

Grassley and Johnson asked the DOJ to provide its filtering procedures and identify officials who reviewed the material for privilege before investigators accessed it.

The committee has also identified the journalists whose communications appear in the records, but will withhold their names due to privacy concerns, a Grassley spokesperson told Fox News.

Generally, this disclosure raises further questions about Smith’s handling of White House records — such as what safeguards were in place to govern investigators’ access to lawmakers’ and journalists’ communications.

Alana Mastrangelo-Wrask is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.