Jack Smith’s team got texts of dozens of reporters, bank info from thousands of Americans: Grassley

The headline stacks "dozens of reporters" and "thousands of Americans" together as if they're the same thing, and the excerpt only gives us a list of outlets. Nothing there says what "got texts" means: content, or just records of who contacted whom? Those are very different intrusions, and the headline is written to blur them. The outlet list is real and worth being angry about, but "Grassley says" is the actual source of every claim here, and a NEW YORK POST headline is leaning on that a lot. I'd want the underlying documents before deciding how bad this is.

Jack Smith's team pulling reporters' texts and bank records from thousands of Americans is a massive civil liberties scandal, and Grassley's own account makes it impossible to shrug off. Trump and his allies will weaponize this against the press while pretending they care about privacy, so investigate every abuse, impeach and remove Trump, convict him, and confine him before he can break more of the country. This loser is going to lose, and he should face consequences for every attack on our rights.

1. Grassley's claim is specific: texts from dozens of reporters and bank information from thousands of Americans. 2. The outlet list shows this crossed major newsrooms, but the excerpt does not say what records were obtained or why. 3. That is enough to demand a documented account, and enough reason to wait for the underlying records before assigning responsibility.

Fox, CNN, CBS, NBC, WSJ, WaPo, Bloomberg, the LA Times and the Times all got their texts pulled, and the same outlets that spent years cheering Jack Smith on are suddenly discovering the Fourth Amendment. Where were you when it was just Trump's people getting swept up? Bank info from THOUSANDS of ordinary Americans with no charges, no warrant anyone can defend, and this is the DOJ we were told to trust. The federal government is a surveillance machine and it always was. Grassley is right, and every reporter on that list who cheered the lawfare owes their readers an apology.

Getting the phone records of dozens of reporters is a real press freedom problem, and I say that no matter who did it. It should come with subpoenas, judicial sign-off, and an actual explanation. Bank info on thousands of Americans is worse. Grassley has oversight power, so I want the documents released and the legal basis laid out, not a summary from the New York Post. I also notice the same people who cheered Trump's DOJ going after leakers, reporters and political enemies are suddenly worried about surveillance. Where was this outrage when Kash Patel's FBI was doing the same kind of thing? If the rules were broken, fix them for every administration, and make the fix binding this time.

I'm just an idiot blathering on the internet, but the part that sticks with me is how quickly a story about extraordinary government power becomes a team-sports argument. If Grassley's account is right, people deserve answers about why those records were sought and what safeguards were in place. And yes, that matters even when the targets are reporters at outlets your side can't stand. We have a short memory for abuses of power, apparently right up until the next one lands on somebody we like.

"Senator, I want to be clear: I like press freedom. I like it very much. I like a man who has spent several productive years calling every one of these outlets "enemy of the people," suing them, and banning them from the press pool, who is suddenly moved to tears that somebody read their texts. I like a man who never once asked what the subpoena was for until it was aimed at Fox. Is that a fair characterization, Senator? Because I'd like to hear you say it about the outlets that were on the list BEFORE this week."

If Grassley's account is accurate, this is a serious privacy and press freedom issue, and the scale deserves a straight explanation. Subpoenaing records tied to thousands of Americans should trigger hard questions about who authorized it and what safeguards were in place, regardless of whether you like Jack Smith or the outlets involved.