Newly disclosed records show former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team obtained thousands of personal checks from Americans who donated to President Donald Trump and Republican-aligned groups during its “Arctic Frost” investigation.

At least 4,782 donor checks were obtained by Smith’s team between September 2019 and August 2023, according to records provided to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley through whistleblower disclosures. The checks came from donors across all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, and many represented small-dollar contributions.

The checks contained sensitive financial and personal information, including donors’ home addresses, bank account and routing numbers, and signatures. Grassley’s office said the records were obtained as part of the “Arctic Frost” investigation into Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 election results and were routed to former FBI Special Agent Walter Giardina.

Grassley confronted Smith over the records during a Tuesday Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, arguing that the donor information was not necessary for the investigation because donations to Republican groups were not referenced in Smith’s eventual public report.

“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,” Grassley said, according to a transcript of the exchange. He also questioned why the investigation obtained information from Americans who had made relatively small contributions.

Smith acknowledged during the hearing that his team had obtained financial information but defended the subpoenas as part of his investigative responsibilities.

“As I sit here right now, I cannot recite every subpoena we issued,” Smith said. “I can tell you why we issued subpoenas. And it was to conduct a criminal investigation of one of the most serious crimes that’s ever happened in our nation’s history. I had a duty to collect facts.”

Grassley said additional subpoena returns could still reveal more donor checks obtained during the investigation. His committee has been examining the scope of “Arctic Frost,” including the collection of records involving Republican lawmakers, donors and other individuals, as part of its broader investigation into Smith’s handling of the Trump cases.