Biden special counsel’s 'runaway train’ scooped up sensitive lawmaker info: 'Abuse of power'

By Fox News · Fox News

Former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into President Donald Trump swept up text messages from nearly 50 members of Congress, bypassing a required review process in what one victim alleged is a direct Constitutional violation. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley , R-Iowa, said the situation is more proof Smith’s probe was a "runaway train" of abuses of power, as the elder statesman and Senate Investigations Subcommittee chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., jointly released their filings Tuesday evening. Grassley and Johnson’s findings come amid a full-scale probe of Operation Arctic Frost – the codename for Smith’s endeavor to investigate Trump for alleged corruption and election malfeasance – an operation top Senate Republicans call "worse than Watergate." LEGAL WAR ON TRUMP’S AGENDA GAINS FIREPOWER AS FEDERAL LAWYERS DEFECT TO DEMOCRATS Forty-four members of Congress had the contents of their text messages obtained and reviewed by Smith's team in a way that bypassed protocol. A "filter team" was tasked with reviewing millions of documents in the case and should have had first crack at determining whether such messages were relevant or potentially violated statute or ethics. Rep. Elise Stefanik , R-N.Y., one of the lawmakers whose texts were swept up in this way, said Tuesday such texts being reviewed amounted to clear violations of the Constitution’s Speech & Debate Clause – which protects lawmakers from being questioned in "any other place" than the Capitol for legislative acts. Internal communications have been historically included in that clause in the courts, as technology has advanced. SUPREME COURT JUSTICES HEAD TO CAPITOL HILL FOR FIRST CONGRESSIONAL APPEARANCE SINCE 2019 Stefanik said in a statement that the new records prove Smith’s team "unlawfully and unconstitutionally accessed my private text messages, along with 43 other Members of Congress, in clear violation of the Constitution." She said she long-suspected there had been…