By John Solomon and Jerry Dunleavy
Published: March 30, 2026 11:02pm
Evidence released in the past week by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley shows Smith’s team prepared a briefing memo in January 2023 – as the presidential race between then-President Joe Biden and Trump was heating up – which alerted Garland that prosecutors were obtaining the communications of as many as a dozen Trump private lawyers and allies and Congress.
The memo made clear that those gatherings were being done despite legitimate claims the lawyers and members of Congress may have for attorney-client and Debate and Speech Clause privileges.
The “AG BRIEFING” document by Smith’s office – dated Jan. 13, 2023 – provided Garland and his office with deep insights into the anti-Trump special counsel’s ongoing inquiry, and its future plans.
The documents were released this month by Grassley, an Iowa Republican, in coordination with Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts.
Recent evidence also shows that Garland, then-Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and then-FBI Director Christopher Wray signed off on the launch of the so-called "Arctic Frost" inquiry into Trump related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Garland also said he “personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant” for the FBI’s unprecedented raid of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in 2022. The Biden White House was also directly linked to the classified documents investigation into Trump, despite its denials, records show.
https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/garland-aware-jack-smiths-efforts-pierce-legal-privileges-pursuing