Courts
Newly unsealed and released materials show that former special counsel Jack Smith's investigative team accessed text messages belonging to 44 members of Congress, in some cases before a Justice Department filter team completed its privilege review. A federal judge separately unsealed filings related to a Smith subpoena for a lawmaker's phone data, which the Justice Department had opposed disclosing, citing grand jury secrecy. Republican lawmakers including Grassley and Johnson raised concerns about the scope of the investigation and questioned whether Smith's earlier statements about the matter were accurate.
The sole sampled LL article (NYT) is narrowly procedural, focused on a judge unsealing filings related to a Jack Smith subpoena for a lawmaker's phone data and DOJ's objection to disclosure; it does not engage with the broader 44-lawmaker text message controversy or Republican characterizations of abuse.
No centrist outlet in our set has published this story.
Fox News and The Daily Wire frame the story heavily around Republican characterizations of 'abuse of power,' a 'runaway train' with 'no brakes,' and 'weaponization' of the DOJ, extensively quoting Grassley, Johnson, Stefanik, Hawley, Paul, and other lawmakers alleging constitutional violations, and emphasizing that Smith's prior sworn testimony denying he obtained text message contents may have been false.