Former special counsel Jack Smith tracked the private phone communications of nearly a dozen Republican senators during his investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) revealed Monday.
Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino briefed lawmakers Monday afternoon on Capitol Hill, saying Smith’s team tracked phone records and calls from major carriers in 2023 under an FBI investigation codenamed “Arctic Frost.” The effort included “tolling data” on calls made by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Ron Johnson (R-WI), and one House Republican, Rep. Mike Kelly (PA), according to supporting documents sent to Grassley by the bureau.
The document, found in a Prohibited Access file in response to Grassley’s ongoing oversight requests, revealed that the FBI in 2023 sought and obtained data about the senators’ phone use from Jan. 4 through Jan. 7 of 2021, while then-Director Chris Wray was in charge. The document showed Smith’s team tracked the origin, destination, and timing of calls involving the lawmakers.
Officials said the surveillance related to lawmakers’ communications around the certification of the 2020 election.
“We were all shocked and outraged by the unjustified phishing expedition Deputy Director Bongino informed us of today,” Grassley said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. The FBI told us in our briefing that not a single one of my colleagues on that list was under investigation – the FBI did its dirty digging without legitimate predication. We expect Patel and Bongino to shut this abuse down immediately.”
Sen. Johnson, who was also a target of the phone records search, emphasized the timeline of the “phishing expedition against several of his Republican colleagues” in connection with the criminal investigation against President Donald Trump in the lead up to the 2024 election cycle.
“To put it all into context, the Mar-a-Lago raid occurred in August of 2022. Jack Smith announced the indictments against President Trump in August of 2023,” said Johnson. “So this is almost two months later, they’re casting this net, this phishing expedition, against members in the Senate in the House … This doesn’t surprise me, but it should shock every American.”
Johnson emphasized the need for more whistleblowers to bring forth information about prior FBI abuses under Wray’s watch, underscoring that “Dan Bongino, folks in the FBI, they still don’t know where all the records are hidden, they’re not necessarily getting 100% cooperation.”
Bongino and FBI Director Kash Patel said the records were discovered during a broader review in response to a congressional oversight request and that they moved quickly to notify those targeted. A source familiar with the findings emphasized that none of the lawmakers named Monday were ever specifically under investigation, but that their presence as part of the broader Arctic Frost operation troubling.
Other senators who were targeted include Bill Hagerty (TN), Dan Sullivan (AK), Cynthia Lummis (WY), and Tommy Tuberville (AL).
Smith’s Jan. 6 case against then-candidate Trump was dismissed after Trump’s reelection last year. The special counsel’s investigations cost taxpayers more than $50 million, according to public statements of expenditures from the DOJ.
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In August, multiple reports indicated Smith would face an investigation from the Office of Special Counsel into whether he violated the Hatch Act, over accusations that his investigations were devised in part to help out the presidential campaigns for Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris, who swapped in to replace Biden as the Democratic frontrunner 107 days ahead of the election.
The revelation that Smith’s investigation comes just weeks after Grassley revealed to Patel through a whistleblower that the Arctic Frost operation probed financial records relating to 92 conservative organizations, including the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA, the Republican National Committee, the Republican Attorneys General Association, the Conservative Partnership Institute, the America First Policy Institute and others.
