WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans grilled top lawyers for Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile in a fiery Tuesday hearing for secretly handing over their phone records to Jack Smith amid the federal prosecutor’s 2020 election interference probe.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who presided over the Judiciary subcommittee hearing, called the “Arctic Frost” disclosures “the worst weaponization of government in modern American history,” while top Democrats on the panel like Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) denied that Smith’s subpoenas for the records were unlawful.
Several GOP senators who were personally targeted felt differently about their records being quietly seized without their knowledge — and claimed that the telecommunications giants ran afoul of the US Constitution’s Speech and Debate Clause.
“We’re talking here about members of Congress,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), one of the Verizon customers who had his phone metadata taken. “The fact that you testified earlier that you get hundreds of thousands of requests for personal information every year is chilling because what all your customers should know is you just turn it over willy nilly.”
“You ought to hide your head in a bag,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) scolded Verizon general counsel Chris Miller.
“This isn’t over — and all the rest of you should too,” he added to AT&T general counsel David McAtee and T-Mobile general counsel Mark Nelson.
The telecommunications lawyers for more than two hours denied all wrongdoing in complying with at least 84 subpoenas, emphasizing that the call logs for the 20 current or former members of Congress — all Republicans — were requested pursuant to court-mandated, non-disclosure orders.
“We were compelled to provide this information under the law. And we complied. No matter who is the subject of a subpoena, Verizon cannot ignore a valid legal demand or a court order,” Miller testified.
AT&T complied with two subpoenas but had quizzed Smith’s team about the lawfulness of releasing Sen. Ted Cruz (R-SC) and another member’s phone records as well — prompting the special counsel’s office to back off.
“And they backed down and folded like a cheap suit. They never pushed. They never went into court, right?” Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) pressed.
“They never followed up,” McAtee answered.
“Because they’re on a fishing expedition,” Graham said. “So if any of you had challenged these guys, they’d went away.”
All three lawyers noted that the policies surrounding responses to subpoenas of lawmakers’ call logs have since changed.
Durbin, several other Senate Democrats and a former federal prosecutor who brought cases against Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol rioters maintained in the hearing that the telecom companies had acted lawfully.
“Subpoenas for toll records are routine in criminal investigations, especially when they involve conspiracy and obstruction of justice,” said the ex-prosecutor Mike Romano.
But more privacy-minded Democrats like Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) have in the past agreed with their Republican colleagues that the phone carriers also ignored contractual obligations to notify lawmakers about the surveillance of government-issued devices.
“You got a contract to protect us,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) also erupted at Miller in the hearing, highlighting Verizon’s standing contract with the Senate Sergeant at Arms. “You failed me!”
“Do you realize Section 2 U.S.C. 6628 says, ‘A Senate office shall not be barred through operation of any court order or any statutory provision from notifying the Senate of any legal process?’” the South Carolina Republican also paraphrased after invoking the terms of the company’s multimillion-dollar contract.
Miller acknowledged that Verizon had “frustrated you as a policymaker and a customer” — but denied that the carrier broke its contractual obligations or the law.
In a later exchange, Blackburn also invoked the law and used Smith’s recent testimony to the House Judiciary Committee to hold the Verizon lawyers feet to the fire.
“My reading of that statute is that it’s the job of the carrier,” Smith testified on Jan. 22. “And to me, that makes the most sense because they’re the ones who have the best and most accurate information about whose phone lines are whose.”
“You all control those logs. So what is your response to Jack Smith to the Senate?” she asked Miller, who responded that federal law enforcement officials were “in the best position to determine whose records are being subpoenaed and whether that individual is a sitting member of Congress.”
The lawyers for the companies confirmed elsewhere in the hearing that either Smith’s office or the FBI sent 15 subpoenas to Verizon, four to AT&T and one to T-Mobile.
Of the Verizon customers, at least a dozen had their so-called “toll analysis,” which includes records of phone calls but not the content, provided to Smith.
The senators who pay for Verizon as their carrier included Blackburn, Hawley, Graham, Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.).
Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), who has asked the Federal Communications Commission to probe Verizon after filing a consumer complaint against the carrier on Monday, also had his phone logs taken.
McAtee clarified that AT&T’s responses to subpoenas included former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), though Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) claims his were also handed over.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) also had his T-Mobile call logs seized.
