Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley on Wednesday released internal Department of Justice messages showing that prosecutors working under then-special counsel Jack Smith may have committed the same kind of classified information security lapses they were prosecuting Donald Trump for. The documents describe a DOJ secure facility left open overnight, individuals granted access to classified material without proper authorization, and a classified letter left unattended, all while Smith's office was building a 40-count felony case against Trump for allegedly mishandling the same kind of information.
Grassley sent a letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche demanding answers about whether anyone was investigated, whether classified materials were compromised, and whether Trump's legal team or the federal court overseeing the case were ever told about the incidents.
The release lands two years after Federal Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the classified documents case against Trump in July 2024, ruling that Smith's appointment violated the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. But the newly surfaced records raise a different question entirely: whether the prosecutors running that case were themselves guilty of the conduct they charged a former president with committing.
The documents, released by Grassley's office, include internal DOJ messages exchanged among team members with access to the special counsel's operations. One exchange describes a sensitive compartmented information facility, a SCIF, used by Smith's staff that was left unsecured.
"No one opened it yesterday because no one closed it the day before," one unnamed team member wrote.
A second official responded sharply: "Who opened it the day before? That's a violation and incident so I need to know the details."
That second speaker was identified by the New York Post as Carli Rodriguez-Feo, a veteran of the DOJ's Litigation Security Group. The Post also reported that the SCIF was left unsecured on April 19, 2024, with Smith assistant Stephanie Van Buskirk apparently responsible for the lapse. A separate incident involved a classified letter left out on October 15, 16, 2023. And internal messages from as early as July 2023 show Smith's team may have provided access to classified materials without confirming the required "need to know" authorization.
That is not one isolated slip. It is a pattern spanning months, during the very period Smith's office was assembling its case against Trump.
In his letter to Blanche, Grassley laid out the contradiction in plain terms.
"This conduct appears to show the Biden Justice Department may have mishandled classified information while it prosecuted President Trump for allegedly mishandling classified information."
He called it "yet another example of law enforcement's double standards in the previous administration."
Grassley went further in a separate statement, as the Washington Examiner reported:
"Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. According to these messages, Biden DOJ personnel may have committed the very offense for which Jack Smith was prosecuting President Trump."
He also drew a broader line, pointing to what he described as a pattern of selective enforcement.
"These records expose yet another double standard of justice. While Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden escaped accountability for mishandling highly classified information, Jack Smith and the Biden DOJ set out to paint President Trump as a felon and ruin him politically."
The senator's letter set a deadline. He requested that Acting Attorney General Blanche provide answers by July 22 about whether the incidents were investigated, whether anyone faced discipline, and whether Trump's attorneys or the court were notified.
The documents describe at least three distinct types of security failures inside Smith's operation. First, the unsecured SCIF, left open overnight and possibly longer. Second, individuals receiving access to classified material before officials confirmed the required "need to know" authorization. Third, a classified letter left unattended.
Newsmax noted that one internal exchange reflected uncertainty over whether classified materials stored in a DOJ SCIF had been moved without proper accounting. That detail, combined with the SCIF being left open and the unauthorized access, paints a picture of an office that was not following the same rules it was trying to put a former president in prison for breaking.
Grassley specifically asked the Justice Department whether any classified materials were "compromised, missing, altered, or tampered with." That question remains unanswered. So does the question of whether Trump's legal team, which was defending him against charges of mishandling classified documents, was ever told that the prosecutors on the other side of the case had their own security problems.
Smith was appointed special counsel during the Biden administration and secured a grand jury indictment against Trump on 40 felony counts tied to alleged mishandling of classified documents. The case drew intense national attention and was widely seen as the most legally serious of the multiple prosecutions launched against Trump during his candidacy.
Judge Cannon dismissed it in July 2024 on constitutional grounds, ruling that Smith's appointment violated the Appointments Clause. That ruling already cast a shadow over the legitimacy of the prosecution. The newly released records add a different dimension, not a constitutional defect, but an operational one. The team entrusted with prosecuting the most high-profile classified information case in modern American history apparently could not keep its own house in order.
No arrests or charges have resulted from the security lapses. No internal investigation has been publicly confirmed. No one has been named as disciplined. The documents do not indicate whether any classified material was actually compromised. But the mere fact that the incidents occurred, and apparently went unaddressed, while the same office was pressing felony charges against a presidential candidate for similar conduct is a contradiction that demands accounting.
Grassley's letter frames several open questions that Acting Attorney General Blanche has not yet publicly addressed. Did the Justice Department investigate the security incidents internally? If so, what did it find? If not, why not? Were any materials confirmed missing or tampered with? And did anyone, the court, Trump's lawyers, or oversight bodies, receive notice that the prosecution team had its own classified information problems?
The senator also did not disclose how his office obtained the internal DOJ messages. That question may matter for future proceedings, but it does not diminish what the messages say on their face.
The broader pattern Grassley described is not new to conservatives who watched the Biden-era Justice Department operate. Hillary Clinton's private email server, which housed classified material, resulted in no charges. President Biden's own retention of classified documents from his time as vice president and senator was handled with a special counsel report but no prosecution. Trump, by contrast, faced 40 felony counts.
Now the records suggest the prosecutors themselves were not meeting the standards they sought to impose.
Blanche has until July 22 to respond to Grassley's demands. Whether the acting attorney general, who served as Trump's defense attorney before joining the administration, will use the findings to pursue further action remains to be seen. The documents are now public. The internal messages speak for themselves.
The Justice Department spent years and millions of dollars building a case that a former president was unfit to handle classified information. If the prosecutors running that case left a SCIF open overnight, handed out classified access without authorization, and left sensitive letters lying around, the American public deserves to know who was held accountable, and who wasn't.
Rules that apply only to one side aren't rules. They're weapons.
