An effort by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) on Thursday to tweak a new provision bolstering senators’ ability to sue the Justice Department for seizing their phone records without their knowledge during a Biden-era investigation was rejected.
The unsuccessful endeavor was in response to GOP tensions over the stipulation that was slipped into the recent government funding deal to end the shutdown, and came less than 24 hours after the House repealed the provision in a rare unanimous vote.
Thune sought unanimous consent, which any one senator can block, on a resolution binding only to the Senate, that would “forfeit” any financial damages won by senators in the courts to the U.S. Treasury. The current language of the law greenlights eight GOP senators whose phone records were seized without proper disclosure in former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election to receive at least $500,000 from the government.
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) objected, who moments earlier had his unanimous consent request blocked to pass the House’s repeal. He said a more formal statutory change to the law is required to fix the “underlying issue of protecting members without the outrageous damage provisions.”
Thune made the case his proposed change would “preserve the important elements of this, which I think are critical to the protection of the Article I Branch of the government constitutionally, but address the question that has been raised about personal enrichment, which I have said is not the case here.”
Heinrich’s earlier attempt to pass the House’s repeal of the provision was blocked by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), whose phone data was unknowingly confiscated and who has vowed to sue the DOJ, phone carrier Verizon, and other involved entities for sums in excess of the $500,000 minimum.
Graham thanked Thune for drafting the provision with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who initially agreed to it to protect Democrats under the Trump administration but has since reversed his position to support its repeal.
HOUSE VOTES TO REPEAL ‘ARCTIC FROST’ PROVISION ADDED TO GOVERNMENT FUNDING DEAL
“Thank you for making sure we’re going to do something to protect the Senate, not only from what happened to us, but what could happen to anybody in the future,” Graham said. “This is really outrageous.”
The Senate later recessed for Thanksgiving break and will not return until Dec.1.
