Attorneys for former Justice Department particular counsel Jack Smith rebutted claims by Republican lawmakers that investigators in the January 6 election subversion case had “wiretapped” GOP members of Congress.
Senate Republicans in current weeks accused Smith and the FBI of “political weaponization” after the FBI disclosed 2023 court docket orders used to acquire cellphone toll data belonging to eight senators and one House member. The data coated calls over 4 days surrounding the January 6, 2021, assault by Donald Trump supporters on the Capitol.
The toll records don’t embody content material, however element time and size of calls and the phone numbers with which the lawmakers communicated, and are a routine half of Justice Department investigations.
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In a letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and his Democratic counterpart, Dick Durbin, Smith’s legal professionals dispute that there was any political motive in acquiring the data, which they be aware had been disclosed in the 2024 indictment of Trump and in Smith’s report on his investigation.
“As described by various Senators, the toll data collection was narrowly tailored and limited to the four days from January 4, 2021 to January 7, 2021, with a focus on telephonic activity during the period immediately surrounding the January 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol,” reads the letter from Lanny Breuer and Peter Koski, which was reviewed by NCS.
“The subpoena’s limited temporal range is consistent with a focused effort to confirm or refute reports by multiple news outlets that during and after the January 6 riots at the Capitol, President Trump and his surrogates attempted to call Senators to urge them to delay the certification of the 2020 election results.”
The Smith attorneys be aware that toll data of then-President Joe Biden had been obtained by particular counsel Robert Hur in the probe of his mishandling of labeled paperwork, and in the investigation of Sen. Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who was convicted on bribery and international affect fees.
“Mr. Smith’s use of the toll records as Special Counsel was lawful and in accordance with normal investigative procedure,” the letter from Smith’s attorneys says.
Republican senators raised the disclosure of the toll data throughout a current Senate listening to with Attorney General Pam Bondi. During the identical listening to, Democrats requested about potential political motives of the current indictments introduced in opposition to Trump’s perceived political enemies, together with former FBI Director James Comey.