New names emerge in Jack Smith's wide-ranging bid for GOP lawmakers’ phone records, unearthed emails show
Internal DOJ emails reveal prosecutor Timothy Duree mapped out House and Senate Republicans who had contact with Trump allies like Mark Meadows and Rudy Giuliani
By Ashley Oliver Fox News
Published March 17, 2026 9:57am EDT
FIRST ON FOX: Internal Department of Justice emails obtained by Fox News Digital show prosecutors working for special counsel Jack Smith sought phone records in 2023 for a wide-ranging group of Republican lawmakers, including newly revealed names such as a current Trump administration official.
The email exchanges between prosecutors beginning Jan. 9, 2023, show Smith’s team mapped out a web of House and Senate lawmakers who interacted with key people in Smith's probe into the 2020 election, including figures like President Donald Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who led many of Trump's unsuccessful legal challenges to the election results.
New names within the emails obtained by Fox News Digital include Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and then-Rep. Lee Zeldin, who now leads the Environmental Protection Agency.
"I’d like to seek [the Public Integrity Section’s] concurrence to get phone tolls for several MOCs who had contact with pertinent parties in our investigation," wrote former DOJ lawyer Timothy Duree. "I’ll keep the timeframe tight—probably October 1, 2020, to January 31, 2021."
The emails come as part of Smith's investigation and prosecution of Trump over the 2020 election, which initially began as an FBI probe called Arctic Frost. Ongoing House and Senate Judiciary Committee investigations have revealed through various public disclosures that the Biden DOJ targeted a large web of Republican people and entities with subpoenas during the probe, but the lawmakers' records requests have become a top source of scrutiny.
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https://www.foxnews.com/politics/new-names-emerge-jack-smiths-wide-ranging-bid-gop-lawmakers-phone-records-unearthed-emails-show
