WASHINGTON (TNND) — On Wednesday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released 197 subpoenas that the Biden administration’s FBI reportedly used to gather testimony and information on over 400 Republican targets as part of the agency’s “Arctic Frost” probe.
“197 subpoenas were issued by Jack Smith and his team. These subpoenas were issued to 34 individuals and 163 businesses, including financial institutions,” Grassley said.
Arctic Frost was the vehicle by which partisan FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors could improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus. Contrary to what Smith has said publicly, this was clearly a fishing expedition,” Grassley said.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., called it “nothing short of a Biden administration enemies list.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Fla., spoke after Grassley revealed that former special counsel Jack Smith sent a subpoena to Verizon to tap his Senate office phone.
“This comes after learning that nearly 20% of Senate Republicans’ cellphones, including mine, were also subpoenaed,” Cruz wrote on X. “Arctic Frost is the Biden DOJ’s Watergate, and they need to be held accountable.”
Grassley said the subpoenas included “nonpublic, confidential grand jury material” that he got through whistleblower disclosures. The subpoenas also sought financial information from conservative organizations like Turning Point USA and the Republican Attorneys General Association.
The senator said Smith’s investigation also uncovered a subpoena to an unidentified person “relating to communications with media companies such as CBS, Fox News, Fox Business, Newsmax, Sinclair, and others.”
Some of the records Smith subpoenaed from banks, individuals and businesses included:
- Communications with media companies such as CBS, Fox News, Fox Business, Newsmax, Sinclair and others
- Communications with “any member, employee or agent of the Legislative Branch of the U.S. Government”
- Communications with White House advisors, such as Stephen Miller, Dan Scavino, Jared Kushner, Lara Trump and others
- Statistical data and analysis relating to donors and fundraising efforts
- Broad financial data relating to conservative individuals and entities
If this had happened to Democrats, they’d be as rightly outraged as we are outraged,” Grassley said.
“2day U can see 1700+ pgs of subpoena records shared w me by brave whistleblowers who want the public 2know how the Biden DOJ/FBI was weaponized,” Grassley wrote on X after the press conference.
On Tuesday, newly released documents showed over 160 Republicans, including those in the current Trump administration, who may have been investigated by former President Joe Biden’s FBI.
The House Judiciary Committee released the files on Tuesday, which detail the scope of the Biden Justice Department’s investigation into 2020 election interference allegations.
The nearly 200 pages of documents released are heavily redacted, but show the investigators used FBI agents from several field offices around the country to conduct interviews and other tasks. Investigators also reportedly requested $16,600 to travel to conduct more than 40 interviews.
Some of the names mentioned in the documents as under potential investigation include White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, Trade Advisor Peter Navarro and U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin. Other names include Steve Bannon, Scott Perry, Rudolph Giuliani, Jeffrey Clark, John Eastman, and Mark Meadows.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Fox News host Sean Hannity the investigation is “much broader, much more expansive, than we ever thought.”
This is why Jordan said the committee wants a deposition from Smith to ask about the potential political motive behind the operation.
While Smith has been asked to provide closed-door testimony to the House Judiciary Committee, he has demanded a public hearing to address the “many mischaracterizations” of his investigations into Trump.
President Donald Trump had already told reporters this month, “Deranged Jack Smith, in my opinion, is a criminal.”
Last Friday, President Trump posted on Truth Social:
Just in: Documents show conclusively that Christopher Wray, Deranged Jack Smith, Merrick Garland, Lisa Monaco, and other crooked lowlifes from the failed Biden Administration, signed off on Operation Arctic Frost. They spied on Senators and Congressmen/women, and even taped their calls. They cheated and rigged the 2020 Presidential Election. These Radical Left Lunatics should be prosecuted for their illegal and highly unethical behavior!”
The documents he was referring to were made public by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, on Oct. 23, who called them “proof of unchecked government power at the highest levels.”
The 2022 document was written by then-FBI Director Christopher Wray for the purpose of receiving authorization to open a sensitive investigative matter, looking into what was viewed as an apparent effort to overturn the 2020 election, involving individuals close to Donald Trump.
Following the 2020 Presidential and Vice Presidential election, and an apparent effort to obstruct Congress‘s certification of the electoral college, fraudulent certificates of electric votes, were submitted to the archive to the United States, reporting to represent the actual elector votes from the state of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin…. Open source reporting in public statements made by individuals closely associated with Donald J Trump present an articulable factual basis, indicating the existence of a federal crime.”
Documents released earlier show that, as part of that investigation, nine Republicans said to have phone data collected regarding who they may have called and when and where the calls took place, a common investigative tool used that does not gather the content of the calls.
In an interview with The National News Desk, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said she has many questions and also called for Smith to be disbarred.
It exposes every call we made, who, every call coming into us and every call that we place going out. So it also exposes all of that information. And why they did it is what we want to know. And then, in addition to phone numbers and trolling our tolls, did they also go after content and data?”
On Oct. 6, Grassley shared one of the first documents uncovered in the probe, writing, “BIDEN FBI WEAPONIZATION = WORSE THAN WATERGATE.”
Following the initial release of information, FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X.
“We recently uncovered proof that phone records of U.S. lawmakers were seized for political purposes. That abuse of power ends now. Under my leadership, the FBI will deliver truth and accountability, and never again be weaponized against the American people,” Patel said.
Arctic Frost is the codename for the investigation looking into an alleged false electors scheme following the 2020 election. While some Republicans assert it was created to target Trump and his close associates, others argue it centered on real threats to Democracy.
The probe was passed to Smith in Nov. 2022, when he was named special counsel after Trump’s announcement of his 2024 run for president.
Trump was later charged by Smith with unlawfully storing classified documents and “wrongly seeking to overturn the 2020 election results.”
The president is reportedly seeking $230 million from the DOJ as compensation for past investigations, including the inquiries into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election and the raid on his Mar-a-Lago residence searching for classified documents.
On Wednesday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, will hold a press conference at 2:45 p.m. ET to speak on the committee’s ongoing oversight of Arctic Frost. He will be joined by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The National News Desk will update this story with the latest from the news conference. Check back for updates.
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The National News Desk’s Kristine Frazao contributed to this report.
