Reuters is reporting that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s 2022 investigation into Kash Patel was far more extensive than previously reported.
According to two grand jury subpoenas and nondisclosure orders, the probe of private citizen Patel at the time of investigations into Trump’s 2020 election interference and the hidden classified documents at Mar-a-Lago included two years of phone records, text messages and financial information.
In addition to phone, online user names, and text messages, Smith and his team sought mailing and email addresses, billing and IP addresses and bank account information, according to the documents.
Records of Susie Wiles were also subpoenaed.
Reuters could not determine the nature of the allegations of wrongdoing, or if there were any.
U.S. Magistrate Judge James Mazzone issued a nondisclosure order on November 30, 2022 in the probe of Patel which stated that the court had “reasonable grounds to believe that disclosure will result in flight from prosecution, destruction of or tampering with evidence, intimidation of potential witnesses and serious jeopardy to the investigation.”
Patel had made public statements in 2022 that Trump had declassified the documents found at Mar-a-Lago, a claim disputed by investigators and never claimed in court by Trump’s lawyers.
The new records are coming to light thanks to the authorization of their release by GOP Senators Chuck Grassley, Ted Cruz, and Ron Johnson ahead of a committee hearing on the Jack Smith investigation.
Ted Cruz is heading a subcommittee hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday morning titled Arctic Frost: A Modern Watergate.
“My oversight of Arctic Frost has proven the more you dig, the more you find,” said Grassley, chairman of the subcommittee.