A small check mailed to President Trump’s campaign or a Republican group may have ended up in a federal prosecutor’s file, bank numbers and signature included. Former special counsel Jack Smith’s team gathered at least 4,782 donor checks, many of them for $5 or $10, while investigating Trump. Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley revealed the number on Tuesday, September 29, with Smith seated in front of the committee to testify.
Story Highlights
- Smith’s team obtained at least 4,782 checks from donors to Trump’s campaign and Republican groups.
- Many of the checks were for $5 to $10, written between September 2019 and August 2023.
- The checks showed home addresses, bank account and routing numbers, and signatures.
- Grassley says the checks were never needed, because Smith’s public report never mentions them.
What Grassley Revealed at the Hearing
Grassley confronted Smith with the number during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, part of the panel’s review of Arctic Frost, the federal investigation into Trump and the 2020 election. “Many of those checks were $5 to $10,” Grassley told Smith. “The list includes checks from constituents in every state of every single member of this committee, both Republicans and Democrats.” His point: the donors were ordinary people, and Smith’s own report, he says, shows the checks played no part in the case.
Grassley brought it home to his own state. “It included 42 checks from Iowans who dared to donate money to Republicans. No matter what you say, there is no legitimate basis for what you did,” he said. The donations ran from September 2019 to August 2023 and went to Trump’s campaign and to Republican groups. Reports of the exchange did not include an answer from Smith on the checks.
What the Checks Showed
A paper check carries more than a dollar amount. It shows the writer’s name and home address, the bank’s name, the account number, the routing number and a real signature. Grassley said that is what the government now holds on thousands of donors. “Now, the Justice Department and FBI will forever possess thousands of people’s addresses, phone numbers, banks, bank account numbers, bank routing numbers and copies of their true signatures,” he said.
For a donor who sent $10 to a candidate he liked, that is a lot of personal data sitting in a federal file. These donors wrote small checks to a campaign and to party groups, a normal part of American politics. Grassley said members of both parties should take it personally. “Every member on this committee ought to be outraged for what happened to their constituents,” he said.
Why Grassley Says It Crossed a Line
Grassley’s case rests on Smith’s own paperwork. Prosecutors are expected to gather what an investigation needs, and Grassley argues the checks fail that test. “Donations to Republican groups wasn’t necessary to your investigation, which is proved out by the fact it wasn’t mentioned in your public report,” he told Smith. In Grassley’s telling, a final report that lays out the case against Trump without a word about donor checks is the proof they were never needed.
The checks are the newest piece of a longer list tied to Arctic Frost. A House Judiciary Committee report released the week before said the probe reached phone records of Republican lawmakers. Records made public the same week show Smith’s investigators also obtained communications between nearly 50 journalists and Trump administration officials through a subpoena of White House phones. Grassley has used each release to press for limits on how far a federal investigation can reach into the lives of people who are not suspects.
Sources:
foxnews.com, thegatewaypundit.com
