Grassley calls on Jack Smith to provide details on meetings with White House, DOJ, & FBI leadership

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley is calling upon former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith to provide details on all of the meetings that he and his Trump investigative team held with the Biden White House and FBI and Justice Department leadership. 

Grassley sent a letter to Smith on Friday shortly after the former special counsel – who had been appointed by Biden administration Attorney General Merrick Garland – offered to testify before the Iowa Republican committee.

The letter was also sent a day after Grassley revealed that Garland, then-Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and then-FBI Director Christopher Wray all signed off on the FBI's 2022 launch of "Arctic Frost" – in which the agency allegedly spied on roughly 100 Republican-linked entities including Congress.

Grassley’s new letter told Smith to reveal details on any and all meetings he or his staff held with Biden White House officials and with Garland, Monaco, Wray, and former FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate.

“While Special Counsel, did anyone at the White House, Attorney General Garland, or Deputy Attorney General Monaco direct you to take any investigative or prosecutorial action?” Grassley’s new letter asked Smith. “While Special Counsel, did Attorney General Garland or Deputy Attorney General Monaco approve your seeking and obtaining tolling records relating to Members of Congress? If not, who approved it?”

Grassley also asked Smith how many members of Congress from which he sought phone tolling information and from how many he obtained that information. The letter also ask the former special counsel whether he was “aware that anti-Trump FBI agents, such as Assistant Special Agent in Charge TimothyThibault, played critical roles in opening and approving the elector case.”

On Thursday, Grassley released a document from April 2022 containing the handwritten signatures of Garland, Monaco and Wray approving the opening of the Arctic Frost investigation. 

Recently-declassified information related to the Arctic Frost investigation show the 2022 lawfare assault against then-former President Donald Trump and MAGA world, as criminal inquiries — which would soon lead to criminal charges — spun into high gear as Trump leaned toward running for president again.

The recent revelation that the FBI snooped on the phone records of Republican members of Congress during its January 6 investigation is bringing greater scrutiny to Wray, during whose tenure the bureau effort occurred, and to Smith, who was leading the Biden Justice Department’s investigation into Donald Trump.

These revelations are also putting the spotlight on Thibault, whom Republicans argue showed extreme anti-Trump bias, demonstrated a willingness to target Trump early in his first term, attempted to slow walk or block the FBI’s investigation into Hunter Biden, and in April 2022 helped spark Arctic Frost investigation — later carried on by Smith — which led to criminal charges against Trump related to the Capitol riot.

Trump and other Republicans repeatedly alleged that Smith and the FBI were themselves engaging in election influence by trying to bring charges, hold trials, and obtain convictions against Trump ahead of the 2024 election.

Thibault, who worked in the FBI’s Washington Field Office, retired from the bureau in 2022 amidst whistleblower allegations and after his anti-Trump social media postings were revealed. An unearthed email from April 2022 showed Thibault approving the opening of Arctic Frost.

The FBI raided Trump’s Florida resort home of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 with the authorization of then-Attorney General Merrick Garland. The Biden attorney general picked Smith in November 2022 to lead the twin criminal investigations into Trump related to classified documents and the Capitol riot.

Smith and the FBI reportedly collected the private phone records of eight Republican senators and one GOP House member as part of his investigation into the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021.

An unearthed FBI record from 2023 indicated that investigators at the bureau had “conducted preliminary toll analysis on limited toll records” tied to phone calls related to GOP Sens. Johnson, Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn.; Josh Hawley, R-Mo.; Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska; Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.; Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.; Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; and GOP Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa.

The FBI’s Arctic Frost investigation also targeted dozens of GOP officials and organizations, according to documents released by Grassley in September.

An FBI document from the Arctic Frost inquiry dated January 2023 showed that the investigation’s “targets” included Donald J. Trump for President Inc., Turning Point USA, the Republican Attorneys General Association, the America First Policy Institute, the Save America PAC, the Conservative Partnership Institute, and many more.