GOP senator says she plans to sue Biden DOJ officials, FBI for invasion of phone privacy

A prominent Republican senator whose phone records were seized during the Biden administration declared Wednesday she will sue Justice Department and FBI officials who conducted the search on grounds they violated her personal civil liberties and her protections as a member of Congress.  “The infringement is deep and wide,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told Just the News.

Blackburn said the 2023 grand jury subpoena of phone records violated her 1st and 4th Amendment protections of free speech and privacy, her separation of powers protections as a lawmaker and possibly the Stored Communications Act because her carrier Verizon retained and turned over information on her geographic locations when she made calls.

She also singled out former Special Counsel Jack Smith, who led investigations that prompted two felony indictments of Donald Trump that have since been dismissed, as well as a specialized team at the FBI that conducted phone analysis on records seized from eight U.S. senators and one House member in a Jan. 6 related probe code named Arctic Frost.

“I can assure you this, we will be suing the Biden DOJ, Jack Smith and his CR-15 team, which, of course, has already been fired by (current FBi Director) Kash Patel, thank goodness,” Blackburn said in an interview on the Just the News, No Noise television show. “These guys just hated Donald Trump, and they hated us because we supported Donald Trump, and we were standing with Donald Trump.”

Blackburn made clear her lawyers have researched several areas of possible infringement, including her personal liberties and her duties as a member of Congress protected by the Constitution’s Speech and Debate clause.

“When you look at what happened with us, it's the 1st and the 4th amendment that was violated with the eight senators, plus our Speech and Debate Clause, our separation of powers and the Stored Communications Act, all of those were violations,” she said. 

“And you know …. the common thread that runs through this is all eight were Republicans,” she added. “ We all supported President Trump, and we had valid questions about the outcome of the 2020, election. 

Blackburn also revealed her lawyers have ascertained her phone records were obtained far earlier than previously reported,.

“One of the things that is so interesting on this is we thought that the wireless carriers received a subpoena in September (2023) for our records, but we found out that Verizon actually received that subpoena in May 2023. That was prior to the indictment of President Trump, which took place in August of 2023,” she said.

 “We know that they pulled what is called the toll data, that is every call we either made or received, the duration of the call, the individual and the number that it was to and from, And then also the physical location where we were when that call was either made or received,” she added.

Asked why she might pursue claims under the Stored Communications Act, she said she did not believe cellular carriers had a need to retain or share information on her whereabouts for normal phone business.

“Of course, with Verizon, my wireless carrier, they received a subpoena, and they turned the records over. They never questioned it. They never quashed or moved to quash the subpoena,” she said. “How could it not? How. Could they not think that they were turning over the records of sitting members of Congress?”

“It just shows you how Jack Smith and Arctic frost, they were so out over their skis, and they were out to get President Donald Trump, and they wanted to convict him of conspiracy. And of course, when you look at what they were doing with us, they were probably looking for obstruction or co-conspirator charges, and