EXCLUSIVE: Jack Smith’s Team Ignored Attorney-Client And Speech Or Debate Privileges To Get Trump:
When Smith appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he should be pushed to explain why he failed to ensure his team adopted and applied proper filter protocols
ignored the written description of filtering the other night,” Molly Gaston messaged her fellow federal prosecutor, J.P. Cooney, in the early days of the post-2020 election targeting of President Donald Trump, documents obtained exclusively by The Federalist reveal. “Me too,” Cooney replied, showing that two of the attorneys whom Jack Smith would later choose to lead the special counsel team disregarded rules when judged “not tenable.” And additional documents whistleblowers provided Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, confirm the special counsel office ignored the protocol established to protect privileged documents.
Monday afternoon, in advance of Jack Smith’s Tuesday testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, The Federalist is publishing a cache of documents it obtained exclusively from Grassley, in advance of their public release. These new documents provide further evidence that the Biden Administration and Special Counsel Jack Smith weaponized the Justice Department.
The first incriminating document consists of what a representative from Grassley’s office confirmed included text exchanges between two prosecutors in the D.C. U.S. attorney’s office from February of 2021. Those communications came soon after Biden’s inauguration and while Tim Thibault remained a key player pushing for an investigation into Trump.
Cooney opened the relevant exchange by asking Gaston “how confusing/bad was the filter guidance? I’m sitting in another call, but am getting pinged that it is a bit of a cluster.”
The referenced “filter guidance” concerned the DOJ’s directions to prosecutors and agents for the handling of documents being reviewed as part of their investigation, where the materials included — or potentially included — privileged materials, such as communications with an attorney. To properly protect privileged communications, when documents may include privileged material, the DOJ requires those documents to be sequestered from the investigative and prosecuting team, with a “filter” or “taint” team reviewing the documents to redact or withhold any protected communications from prosecutors.
The documents provided The Federalist indicate that during the initial stages of the Arctic Frost investigation, the FBI and prosecutors operating out of the D.C. office did not use a taint team, and instead had “filter guidance” telling them how to handle privileged communications. According to Gaston, the guidance “basically said, if you come across potentially privileged material (without defining), stop and freeze.”
In her text to Cooney, Gaston admits she “ignored the written description of filtering the other night,” explaining it is “not tenable.”
“Me too,” Cooney responded showing he also disregarded the directions for handling potentially privileged materials.
While Cooney told Gaston that someone named “Liz” was working on fixing the process — something he called a “cluster” — it is unclear when or how the pre-Smith Arctic Frost team filtered evidence in the early stages of the investigation. However, one slide from a presentation included in the documents suggests the ad hoc filtering continued for nearly a year-and-a-half, with the presentation materials stating “[o]ver 50 Department of Justice Personnel (DOJ and FBI) have participated in the Filter Team Since June 2022,” and noting the first document was coded on “June 17, 2022.”
That Cooney and Gaston initially ignored the filter guidance and then apparently took more than a year to establish a filter team contrasts sharply with the norm in the D.C. U.S. attorney and FBI field offices, as documents provided by whistleblowers and released today show. Those emails capture the seriousness and care the DOJ normally exercises to protect constitutional privileges, with some of the key players in investigating Trump involved in those email exchanges — showing they knew full well the importance of using a taint team and not viewing unfiltered documents. --->READ MORE HERE
Smith Prosecutors Admitted Ignoring Privilege Rules in Trump Investigation:
Two federal prosecutors who later joined Jack Smith’s special counsel team openly admitted to each other that they ignored Department of Justice protocols designed to protect privileged communications during the early stages of the investigation into President Donald Trump.
“I ignored the written description of filtering the other night,” prosecutor Molly Gaston messaged her colleague J.P. Cooney in February 2021, according to documents obtained exclusively by The Federalist from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA). “Me too,” Cooney replied.
The exchange, released Monday ahead of Smith’s Tuesday testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, reveals a casual disregard for constitutional protections that Americans depend on to shield their communications with attorneys from government eyes.
Gaston described the filter guidance as “not tenable,” apparently justifying her decision to bypass the rules entirely. Cooney called the situation a “cluster.”
The filter guidance at issue governs how prosecutors and FBI agents must handle documents that may contain privileged materials, such as attorney-client communications. Standard DOJ practice requires a “taint team,” a separate group of personnel who review documents first and redact or withhold protected communications before prosecutors ever see them.
But during the initial stages of the Arctic Frost investigation targeting Trump, no taint team existed. Instead, agents and prosecutors received written guidance telling them to “stop and freeze” if they encountered potentially privileged material. Both Gaston and Cooney admitted they ignored even that minimal protection.
The documents provided to Grassley suggest this ad hoc approach continued for well over a year. A presentation slide included in the materials states that “over 50 Department of Justice Personnel (DOJ and FBI) have participated in the Filter Team Since June 2022,” with the first document coded on June 17, 2022. That timeline indicates more than a year passed between the February 2021 text exchange and the establishment of any formal filter team. --->READ MORE HERE
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