FBI snooped on phone calls of GOP members of Congress in wake of J6, unearthed docs show

Jack Smith, as a Biden Justice Department special counsel, reportedly snooped on the private communications of eight Republican senators and one GOP House member as part of his investigation into the January 6 Capitol riot.

An unearthed FBI record from 2023, first reported by Fox News, indicated that investigators at the bureau had “conducted preliminary toll analysis on limited toll records” tied to phone calls related to 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.

“This document shows the Biden FBI spied on 8 of my Republican Senate colleagues during its Arctic Frost investigation into ‘election conspiracy’ Arctic Frost later became Jack Smith's elector case against Trump,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a Monday afternoon tweet as he shared the FBI record that had been provided to him by current FBI Director Kash Patel. “BIDEN FBI WEAPONIZATION = WORSE THAN WATERGATE.”

Grassley's office said Monday that "the FBI in 2023 sought and obtained data about the senators’ phone use" from January 4, 2021 through January 7, 2021 (the day after the Capitol riot). The senator's office said that "that data shows when and to whom a call is made, as well as the duration and general location data of the call" although not the contents of the calls themselves.

The Senate chairman's office revealed that the FBI document "was found in a Prohibited Access file in response to Grassley’s oversight requests."

“Based on the evidence to-date, Arctic Frost and related weaponization by federal law enforcement under Biden was arguably worse than Watergate,” Grassley said in a Monday evening statement. “What I’ve uncovered today is disturbing and outrageous political conduct by the Biden FBI. The FBI’s actions were an unconstitutional breach, and Attorney General Bondi and Director Patel need to hold accountable those involved in this serious wrongdoing.”

Merrick Garland as attorney general in January 2022 declared “there is no higher priority for us at the Department of Justice” than going after those involved with January 6, calling the DOJ’s inquiry “one of the largest, most complex, and most resource-intensive investigations in our history.”

Garland announced in early January of this year, before being replaced by Pam Bondi, that “We have now charged more than 1,500 individuals for crimes that occurred on January 6, as well as in the days and weeks leading up to the attack," on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021.

Then-FBI Director Christopher Wray claimed in a February 2022 speech that the FBI was working just as hard to punish those involved in the 2020 George Floyd riots as it was to prosecute those tied to the Capitol riot.

The FBI raided Trump’s Florida resort home of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 with the authorization of Garland. The Biden attorney general appointed Smith to be special counsel in November 2022.

Smith and the Biden DOJ charged Trump in June 2023 over allegations related to the improper retention of classified documents, followed by a superseding indictment the next month. The then-special counsel then indicted Trump in August 2023 related to the then-former president’s alleged actions surrounding the 2020 election, with superseding charges in August 2024.

Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed Smith’s classified documents case against Trump in July 2024, ruling that Smith had been unlawfully appointed as special counsel. Smith attempted to appeal the ruling but soon dropped it after Trump won the 2024 election against then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

Judge Tanya Chutkan dismissed the January 6-related case against Trump in November 2024 after Trump’s win, pointing to the Office of Legal Counsel’s position that a sitting president could not be prosecuted by his own DOJ.

Smith released his report in January of this year, a couple weeks before Trump’s second inauguration.

Trump issued pardons and commutations in January of this year to the hundreds of defendants who had been charged by the DOJ for their involvement in the Capitol riot.

Patel said during his late January confirmation hearing before the Senate that "I do not agree with the commutation of any sentence of any individual who committed violence against law enforcement."

Patel also said that “I also believe America is not safer because of President Biden's commutation of a man” – convicted murderer Leonard Peltier – “who murdered two FBI agents … So it goes both ways."

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., urged the Office of Special Counsel – led by Acting Special Counsel Jamieson Greer – to investigate Smith in a letter sent back in July, arguing Smith had improperly attempted to influence the 2024 election.

“I write requesting the Office of Special Counsel to investigate whether Jack Smith, Special Counsel for Attorney General Merrick Garland, unlawfully took political actions to influence the 2024 election to harm then-candidate President Donald Trump,” Cotton wrote. “As the Office of the Special Counsel is tasked with ensuring federal employees aren't conducting partisan political activity under the guise of their federal employment, you're well situated to determine whether Smith broke the law. Many of Smith's legal actions seem to have no rationale except for an attempt to affect the 2024 election results-actions that would violate federal law.”

Smith’s lawyers from the Covington & Burling law firm sent their own letter to Greer in August defending their client, arguing that “Smith’s actions as special counsel were consistent with the decisions of a prosecutor who has devoted his career to following the facts and the law, without fear or favor and without regard for the political consequences, not because of them.”