Sen. Eric Schmitt was reportedly warned the texts were ‘unvetted.’ But he used them anyway to question Jack Smith

Republican aides on the Senate Judiciary Committee told Sen. Eric Schmitt that Justice Department texts he wanted to use against former special counsel Jack Smith were “unvetted,” according to a source with direct knowledge of the conversation. MS NOW reported the warning came while staff were getting ready for Smith’s testimony. Schmitt still brought the messages into the hearing.

The texts had been obtained from the Justice Department, that source said. Schmitt treated them as evidence that Smith had colluded with a Georgia state prosecutor. Committee staff told his team the material had not been checked and that confirming it was up to them, the source said.

On the hearing floor, Schmitt said Smith had been at an Atlanta Hawks game in February 2024 and raised the possibility that Smith had conspired in some way with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Smith pushed back. Within minutes, with C-SPAN carrying the exchange, the claim no longer held.

Committee aides kept the messages out of the pre-hearing memo

A source familiar with the committee process and two sources familiar with the matter said the Department of Justice had given Republican Judiciary staff a set of materials before Smith appeared. Chair Chuck Grassley’s team then prepared a memo on important points for the hearing, one source said. The texts were not part of that memo, the source added.

Democrats did not receive the texts from Grassley before the session, according to a Democratic staffer and another source briefed by committee staff. One of those people said leaving the messages out made Democrats more suspicious that congressional Republicans and the Trump administration were coordinating to undermine or trap Smith.

A source with direct knowledge said Schmitt’s staff went to Republican committee aides looking for anything that tied Smith’s investigation to Willis’s case. Smith has faced similar scrutiny over his Trump investigations, as when he told senators he would not be silenced amid threats of prosecution.

Smith’s inquiry covered efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election through fraud claims prosecutors described as bogus. Willis’s office was examining whether Trump tried to manipulate Georgia’s election results. The source said requests like that are routine before hearings.

Once Schmitt’s team said it wanted the messages, aides gave them access, the source said. Those aides also told the team, in direct terms, that the texts were unvetted and that Schmitt’s office had to verify them.

The outlet reported that the Justice Department often hands Congress a narrow batch of non-sensitive records when a case or program is under review. It said Trump appointees have gone further, turning over a wide range of sensitive files from the special counsel investigation while Republicans search for misconduct by Smith and his staff. The search has produced allegations and conspiracy theories, but not concrete examples of wrongdoing.

An earlier round of questions followed a similar path, according to the report. Republicans cited internal notes about subpoenas and accused Smith of “wiretapping” GOP members while he investigated Trump’s attempt to interfere in the 2020 election. The underlying records did not support that charge, MS NOW reported. They showed Smith’s office collecting only the time and date of calls, not what was said.

Smith said he wanted more proof that Republican lawmakers had spoken with Trump and top aides during the Jan. 6 riot. He said he already had evidence that Trump and his team called lawmakers “to exploit the violence” at the Capitol and to stop certification of Joe Biden’s win.

The Sept. 29, 2026, hearing turned on a different problem. MS NOW reported that Schmitt’s suggestion of a secret meeting between Smith and Willis on their Trump cases came from a mix-up.

Smith has denied ever meeting Willis. Schmitt said his texts showed Smith at the Atlanta Hawks game on Feb. 3, 2024. Smith said he did not remember being in Atlanta, except possibly at the airport while waiting for a connecting flight.

“I definitely did not go to a Hawks game,” Smith said. “I’m sure of that.” Schmitt answered, “I think you’ve already perjured yourself.” Smith then remembered a women’s college game from around the same time: Iowa against Maryland.

MS NOW reported that a Google search placed the Hawkeyes-Maryland game and the Atlanta Hawks game on the same day, Feb. 3, 2024.