WASHINGTON — Top Biden administration officials personally signed off on an FBI investigation that would go on to target nearly 100 Republican-linked groups or entities — and may have even “spied” on members of Congress.
Former Attorney General Merrick Garland, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and FBI Director Christopher Wray’s signatures all appear on an April 4, 2022, document authorizing the bureau’s “Arctic Frost” probe that was released Thursday by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
Grassley accused the Biden administration of having “unleashed unchecked govt power at the highest levels” in a bombshell X post on the disclosures before vowing: “My oversight will continue.”
The FBI’s Washington Field Office requested the senior officials’ authorization before looking into “an apparent effort to obstruct Congress’ certification of the Electoral College” and “fraudulent certificates of electors’ votes were submitted to the Archivist of the United States, purporting to represent the actual elector votes from the states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin,” the files show.
“Open source reporting and public statements made by individuals closely associated with Donald J. Trump, Inc. (Trump Campaign) present an articulable factual basis indicating the existence of a federal crime, and thus the FBI seeks to open a full investigation,” according to the four-page memo written by Wray.
The FBI boss — who resigned one day before Trump returned to office as the 47th president — sent the missive to Garland, who signed it April 5, 2022.
“Merrick, I recommend you approve,” Monaco scrawled beneath her boss’s signature line.
Arctic Frost would eventually provide investigative material to special counsel Jack Smith for his indictment of Trump charging unlawful efforts to reverse Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory — but prominent donors, allies and even sitting senators were also swept up in the FBI’s dragnet.
According to unclassified files also released by Grassley, the bureau quietly issued subpoenas for nine congressional Republicans’ phone records as part of the probe, a move the 92-year-old senator called a “weaponization” of federal law enforcement that was “arguably worse than Watergate.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) has since accused Smith — whose case against Trump was dismissed before he assumed office — of having “spied on duly elected members of Congress” and called for the DOJ ex-special counsel’s disbarment.
“As part of Jack Smith’s weaponized witch hunt, the Biden DOJ issued subpoenas to several telecommunications companies in 2023 regarding our cell phone records, gaining access to the time, recipient, duration, and location of calls placed on our devices from January 4, 2021, to January 7, 2021,” Blackburn wrote in a letter earlier this month co-signed by others whose phone metadata was accessed.
“We have yet to learn of any legal predicate for the Biden Department of Justice issuing subpoenas to obtain these cell phone records,” added the letter, which was also signed by Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and Dan Sullivan of Alaska as well as Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.).
Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) also had their call logs seized during Arctic Frost.
The so-called “toll analysis” of the phones could have shown who each member was calling or texting in the lead-up and immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Additionally, 92 Republican or GOP-aligned groups or people — including Turning Point USA, co-founded by assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk — were investigated in a way that appeared to show “Arctic Frost was much broader than just an electoral matter,” Grassley said in a September hearing when announcing the release of more unclassified bureau files.
“Arctic Frost wasn’t just a case to politically investigate Trump,” he added. “It was the vehicle by which partisan FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors could achieve their partisan ends and improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus.”
“They tried to force Charlie, and many other people and movements, out of business,” Trump said of the probe. “They Weaponized the Justice Department against Sleepy Joe Biden’s Political Opponents, including ME!”
