Jack Smith’s Twisting Of Justice Makes The Case For Anti-Weaponization Fund

The latest bombshell documents on former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s abusive Arctic Frost investigation further show the Biden administration twisted justice in the name of politics. And the damage done demands an anti-weaponization fund to compensate victims of a far-reaching Department of Justice, one victim of Smith’s witch hunt says. ‘A Runaway Political Train’ Last week, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released a new tranche of documents showing Smith — the unconstitutionally-named former special counsel — and his team grabbed up communications from 17 news outlets, including The Federalist, in the corrupt investigation to take out then-former President Donald Trump. Smith’s henchmen tapped into communications from nearly 50 journalists, including those of Federalist Editor-In-Chief Mollie Hemingway, Grassley said. BREAKING: Statement From Sean Davis, CEO and Co-Founder of The Federalist:Corrupt cop Jack Smith spied on The Federalist and accessed our communications during his lawless anti-Trump witch hunt. We are still working to determine which of our reporters were targeted by Jack…— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) September 29, 2026 Arctic Frost investigators also sought subpoenas to obtain nearly 5,000 checks written by Trump donors, Grassley revealed ahead of a Judiciary Committee hearing at which Smith testified. In his opening statement, Grassley said the records show Smith’s operation “blew through constitutional stop signs.” Along the way, the prosecutor’s team secretly seized text messages from more than 40 members of Congress — including Grassley himself. “Jack Smith’s operation was a runaway political train that improperly obtained congressional information,” Grassley said. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, called Smith’s probe “another grotesque example of the Biden administration’s weaponization of the Justice Department.” Johnson, too, was spied on. As The Federalist reported, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., on Wednesday filed a lawsuit alleging the disgraced former prosecutor unlawfully seized her cell phone records. Smith also obtained a non-disclosure order blocking Blackburn and her congressional colleagues from seeing what the spooks were up to. Blackburn’s lawsuit alleges Smith and crew did not tell the presiding judge that the subpoenas they sought were aimed at a sitting senator’s records. Blackburn also charges that Smith’s appointment by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland was unconstitutional. Federal Judge Aileen Cannon said the same in ruling that Smith was illegally appointed as special counsel to prosecute a bogus classified documents case against Trump. “He subpoenaed a sitting senator’s tolling records in secret, a blatant violation of the Speech or Debate Clause,” Margaret Harker, senior Litigation Counsel at the New Civil Liberties Alliance, the public-interest law firm representing Blackburn, said during a recent episode of The Federalist Radio Hour. “He obtained a nondisclosure order to ensure Sen. Blackburn would never find out about it — he did not disclose the relevant facts of the NDO.” During the hearing, Smith said he stood by his decisions, including bringing four federal counts against Trump on allegations the president feloniously attempted to overturn the results of the rigged 2020 election. “I made these decisions without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election,” Smith said — with a straight face, nonetheless — in his opening statement. ‘Exploring All Legal Options’ The documents unveiled in congressional investigations show an overzealous, partisan actor who abused power he legally did not have to go after the Democrat’s no. 1 political enemy and his allies, bastardizing laws and a using a phony “insurrection” to do it. Sean Davis, co-founder and CEO of The Federalist, said the shocking revelations make clear that Smith wasn’t just trying to bankrupt and put Donald Trump in prison for the rest of his natural life. He wasn’t just doing the bidding of the Democratic Party in their quest to rig the 2024 election through weaponization. “It turns out he was also spying on us,” Davis said on Friday’s episode of The Federalist Radio Hour. “And [Smith] in trying to roll up the entire conservative movement was also Hoovering up communications from journalists.” Hemingway wrote on her X account last week that she was “sickened by this news that my journalistic communications were obtained as part of Jack Smith’s egregious misconduct. “Proud to have been one of the only journalists who debunked his agency’s role in perpetrating the Russia collusion lie against the American people,” she added. I'm sickened by this news that my journalistic communications were obtained as part of Jack Smith's egregious misconduct.Proud to have been one of the only journalists who debunked his agency's role in perpetrating the Russia collusion lie against the American people.No… https://t.co/IwSf6t7vRj— Mollie (@MZHemingway) September 29, 2026 Davis said it’s not clear how deeply the corrupt federal investigation dug into The Federalist’s communications, whether it was incidental or targeted. “Was he spying on all of our phones? Was he in our text messages? Was he getting meta data? Was he in our email? We don’t know,” Davis said. The Federalist has been down this road before. The Biden administration worked with Big Tech to censor the Federalist and The Daily Wire for their “inconvenient” coverage of Covid, vaccine mandates, election integrity, and harassment of pro-life protesters. Earlier this year year, the news outlets and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton won a major First Amendment case when a federal district court ordered government entities to stop “knowingly censor constitutionally protected speech or lead third parties to do so.” Davis said he is “exploring all legal options” in response to Smith and his investigators spying on The Federalist. He said Smith cannot be allowed to get away with what he did to the Constitution and to the fundamental rights of Americans. “Somebody has to pay a price to make sure this isn’t done again,” he said. “I’m trying to get all the facts, find out the exact nature of what and who he was spying on and what he got, but I am absolutely exploring all options to make sure this never happens to us — or anyone else — again.” ‘They Deserve Restitution’ The deeper scope of Smith’s abuse of power underscores the need for an anti-weaponization fund for victims of federal prosecutorial abuse, The Federalist CEO said. Attorney General Todd Blanche put the settlement fund on ice following political pressure from Democrats who cheered on Biden administration witch hunts against conservatives and from weak-stomach Republicans constantly cuckolded by Democrats and their friends in the accomplice media. A Clinton-appointed federal district court judge and an appeals court led by two Obama appointees have agreed with critics of the approximately $1.8 billion fund, arguing that Trump and the Justice Department colluded in creating it. The lawsuits and the rulings disregard some critical facts: That Americans were ground under the machinery of weaponized justice in the name of politics. Like the parents harassed and intimidated by law enforcement officials for speaking out at school board meetings against Covid-era and woke policies. Or the pro-life Americans sentenced to lengthy prison sentences for praying outside abortion factories. Or the government whistleblowers who brought Smith’s and other corruption to light. Davis noted that the left — particularly in the Obama and Biden administrations — have established big payouts to their political allies under the guise of “sue and settle” actions. The lawsuits, brought by special interest groups against federal agencies (with a wink and a nod from the agencies) are designed to create policies and initiatives and then use taxpayer funding to pay for them. Obama-era sue and settle actions were described as “engineered windfall(s) for special interests masquerading and a settlement.” Leftist groups have been funded for decades through the schemes. “So I found it fascinating that after we all watched the government target and victimize innocent people, this was an instance [Smith’s abuses] where restitution was absolutely necessary, where victims needed to be made whole, and instead you had a bunch of Democrats and completely worthless, feckless Republicans stop it and say, ‘Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! We can’t have that right now.’” “I think the weaponization fund absolutely needs to come back,” Davis added. “People who have been victimized by an overly tyrannical government doing illegal things to victimize them, those victims need to be made whole and they deserve restitution.” Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin. Arctic FrostAttorney General Merrick GarlandAttorney General Todd BlancheBiden administrationChuck GrassleyDepartment of JusticeJack SmithJudge Aileen CannonKen PaxtonMargaret HarkerMollie HemingwayNew Civil Liberties AlliancePresident Donald TrumpSean DavisSen. Marsha BlackburnSen. Ron JohnsonSenate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck GrassleyThe Daily WireThe Federalist