Politics

We Asked Lawmakers If They Changed Their Tune About Warrantless Spying After Jack Smith Read Their Texts

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A handful of lawmakers who supported the government’s warrantless spying tool on Americans did not answer whether their minds had changed on the topic after former special counsel Jack Smith obtained their text messages.

Smith and his investigative team reviewed the text messages of 44 members of Congress, including Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee, as part of a criminal investigation into President Donald Trump and other individuals in his orbit after the 2020 election. Several lawmakers who supported warrantless spying as part of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance ACT (FISA) and voted to reauthorize it, including Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation when asked whether this made them think differently about the government accessing Americans’ data without a warrant.

Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Susan Collins of Maine, Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, Dan Sullivan of Alaska and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s offices did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment. Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson’s office declined to comment.

Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn said he did not believe any changes needed to be made to Section 702, though he believed Smith should be held accountable for accessing lawmakers’ messages.

“Those are two separate issues. FISA Section 702 has nothing to do with what Jack Smith did … I think what we passed before is working very well,” Cornyn told the DCNF. “Smith needs to be held accountable for accessing congressional text messages and without going through the proper procedures.”

Lee told the DCNF that Congress needs to prevent anyone in government from violating the Fourth Amendment by conducting “politically-motivated domestic surveillance.”

“The same deep state that spied on Members of Congress in Arctic Frost has spied on law-abiding citizens across the nation, including President Trump. We cannot fix this situation by merely going after Jack Smith: we need to smash the future capabilities of anyone to conduct politically-motivated domestic surveillance and violate the 4th Amendment.”

The Utah senator has repeatedly opposed warrantless spying and said he would only support reauthorizing Section 702 if a warrant were added. He voted against extending Section 702 before its June 12 expiration in a June 5 vote.

Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, whose text messages were obtained by Smith, told the DCNF he believes Section 702 needs to be reformed.

“I’ve always been weary of the current FISA regime for precisely that reason,” Hawley told the DCNF. “The truth is that Americans’ personal information gets scooped up all the time. We know that for a fact, and gets queried by the database all the time. So I think that’s a big problem, and I think we need to do more to address that. I’ve said, if you want to get the communications of terrorists, I mean, go for it. Foreign residents, that’s fine because they’re not protected under the Constitution.”

“But I do think that we need to put in place some protections for Americans, and I would be happy to support a FISA bill. We can make some progress on that,” Hawley continued.

Department of Justice (DOJ) protocol mandates the use of “filter teams” to protect the constitutional rights of the individuals involved in an investigation, though Smith bypassed these legal protections, documents and a detailed explanatory memo stated. Smith’s office denied that they spied on lawmakers.

Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie said Smith’s actions were “further proof” that the DOJ’s protocols were not a reasonable replacement for Fourth Amendment warrants.

“Spying on Americans under FISA 702 is unconstitutional,” Massie told the DCNF. “Although he did not invoke FISA authorities to do so, Jack Smith’s collection of our texts is further proof that DOJ protocols are not an appropriate replacement for Fourth Amendment warrants.”

In a statement on X, Republican Florida Sen. Rick Scott said the “outrageous” investigation led by Smith is why he has fought to reform Section 702.

“This is why I’ve been fighting so hard to reform FISA. The American people deserve protection from weaponized surveillance. If they can do this to a fortune 50 CEO and a U.S. Senator, they can and are doing it to American citizens. It’s time to tell the swamp to get a warrant,” Scott said.

However, Jordan voted for an extension of the program in June after having voted against it in 2024.

“It’s a whole different context today — 2026, not 2024. And you know, we got something like 56 reforms in the legislation last year, and they’ve made a huge difference. … I think it’s a completely different framework,” Jordan told The Hill.

Grassley said Smith and the Biden DOJ “ran roughshod over the Constitution” by ignoring their own protocols “to obtain and review work-related messages” from members of Congress.

Smith spearheaded two criminal cases against Trump. One case related to Trump’s possession of classified documents inside his Mar-a-Lago residence, and the other related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.