Republican senators subpoena phone companies for names of those targeted in Arctic Frost probe

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson on Wednesday subpoenaed three telecommunications companies for unredacted records related to Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 investigation that swept up data on more than 400 individuals including their phone records. 

Johnson previously requested such records from the companies, including AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen, but their responses were heavily redacted or failed to provide “the names of the individuals or entities associated with the phone numbers in the subpoenas,” said Grassley, of Iowa, and Johnson, of Wisconsin.

The subpoenas were sent by Johnson’s Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and the cover letters were co-signed by Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has also probed special counsel Smith. 

Documents released by the pair last year showed that the Biden administration's FBI opened an investigation into President Donald Trump and hundreds of his allies over their Jan. 6 activities with weak evidence, which included obtaining phone records and geolocations of prominent lawmakers, Just the News previously reported. 

“We’re still learning just how far Jack Smith’s fishing expedition went,” Grassley said in a statement to Just the News. “These subpoenas from the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will shine additional light on whose phone data Smith requested, including which members of Congress were impacted." 

Grassley also said: "I thank Senator Johnson for his longstanding partnership in our oversight of Arctic Frost."

You can read the subpoenas below: 

Congressional investigators previously revealed that Smith had cast a net of subpoenas for phone records of several GOP members of Congress and more than 400 individuals associated with the president or his movement as it investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. They also said Smith obtained government phones that had belonged to President Donald Trump and his former vice president.

Grassley's office previously provided the names of the lawmakers that it says were targeted in the sweep, which included one Republican House member and 10 senators. 

“Over the last year, Chairman Grassley and I identified hundreds of individuals and entities that Jack Smith swept into his massive partisan dragnet, including Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA and elected officials," Johnson said in a statement to Just the News. "In response to these subpoenas, I expect the telecom companies to identify even more people Jack Smith ruthlessly targeted as he weaponized the federal justice system against law-abiding patriots."