Johnson floats surveillance reform in aftermath of 'Arctic Frost' bombshells

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday indicated that the House would consider legislation to limit the ability of intelligence agencies to gather records related to lawmakers, following revelations that the FBI accessed the phone records of multiple elected Republicans as part of a probe that served as a precursor to special counsel Jack Smith’s inquiry into President Donald Trump.

“I think that the time has come for certain,” he said on the “John Solomon Reports” podcast, regarding the prospect of reining in surveillance powers.

Just the News reported earlier this month that the FBI had reviewed phone records of GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina; Bill Hagerty, Tennessee; Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and GOP Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa.

The current Republicans in Congress are eager to crack down further

The outlet also uncovered that Congress collected 30 million lines of phone data linking conservatives to the Trump White House as part of an investigation into Jan. 6. Though the FBI has since sacked at least two agents linked to operation “Arctic Frost,” the precursor to Smith’s probe, Republicans in Congress seem eager to go further.

“What you've uncovered there is alarming, John,” Johnson said. “We knew the January 6 Committee was a fraudulent operation from the get-go. I mean, you know, you had two so-called Republicans serving on it. They were on the team of the Democrats, Kinzinger and Cheney.”

Then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected Republican nominations to participate on the committee and instead hand-picked two publicly anti-Trump members of the conference. Neither of them, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., nor Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., still serves in Congress.

Both the two Republicans and the Democratic members of the now-defunct panel have faced allegations of impropriety, including regarding the alleged destruction of records. Kinzinger, in particular, offered the FBI the trove of records the panel collected as evidence that did not require a warrant, according to an FBI document that Just the News obtained.

“And everybody knows now it's infamous what they did,” Johnson said. “I believe they destroyed evidence, but we did not know the scope of the abuses and the fact that they were collecting what 30 million metadata phone lines of correspondence with the White House for the political purpose of using it in the election the last election cycle is stunning to us, and so, yes, there have to be some safeguards.”

“I mean, the Constitution provides us a level of privacy, and there are protections that are built into the Constitution,” Johnson went on. “But, you know, this has gotten out of hand, and the idea that you had, you know, eight members of the Senate and a House Republican that were, they were having their phone lines tapped effectively, and that Adam Kinzinger, as you've reported, offered all this to the FBI on the eve of the '24 election for nefarious purposes, is beyond the pale.”

Johnson further called the move a “gross violation of the Speech and Debate Clause in the Constitution that allows for Congress to do his work.”

“To have a former colleague turn on his colleagues in the House and try to use this data that had been collected for political purposes illustrates the problem here, and I think, I think the time has come for us to reevaluate all of that,” he concluded.

Johnson did not elaborate on any specific proposals in the interview and Congress has generally been disinclined to limit intelligence agency surveillance powers. A recent debate over potential reforms to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), for instance, saw House panels produce competing renewal bills and led to an intense internal GOP battle over the implementation of a warrant requirement that ultimately led to little reform.

It remains unclear whether Johnson will follow up on such talk in the lower chamber. But senior members of the Senate, however, are beyond livid.

"As the chairman of the committee, I determine whether we should investigate alleged wrongdoing," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on the “Just the News, No Noise” television show this month. "I was doing my job, and the fact that they would look at who I'm calling and the length of the phone call and where it took place is beyond chilling.”

"What was the predicate for this? What vehicle did they use?" he went on. "We're going to get to the bottom of it. And the people who did this need to be fired, and we need to make sure the government pays in a way to deter it in the future."

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.