Label this page carefully. Arctic Frost is the FBI’s 2020-election probe that later fed Special Counsel Jack Smith’s elector case. The document here is a Justice Department briefing memo dated January 13, 2023, prepared for Attorney General Merrick Garland and later released to the public by Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (with Chairmen Johnson and Cruz authorizing the production). It is a released government document. It is not a court finding of judicial misconduct. Do not write “Howell plotted with Smith” as Fact.
Under “OTHER NOTABLE MEETINGS,” the notes include a heading “Chief Judge Howell Meeting—” and these lines, as they appear in the released PDF: “Pace over the last month” and “She liked our approach of pursuing the executive privilege litigation in an omnibus fashion.” The next line is “Judge Boasberg = March 18.” Boasberg became chief judge on March 17, 2023. That pairing is the crossover with jamesboasberg.com/posts/smith-notes.html.
Fox News and The Federalist later reported that the same notes also said Howell was aware an omnibus motion was coming “and loves the idea.” That extra clause is in their reporting about the dump. The PDF extract used for this page shows the “liked our approach” sentence. This site does not treat a news paraphrase as a second primary. What is documented independently: she was chief judge until March 17, 2023; the notes exist; they record a meeting heading and a favorable description of an omnibus privilege strategy. What is not established here: a transcript of the conversation, or a finding that the contact was unlawful.