WASHINGTON — An FBI investigation launched in the wake of the the 2020 election scrutinized nearly 100 Republican and GOP-aligned groups or people — including Turning Point USA, co-founded by slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, unclassified bureau files released Tuesday show.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) published files related to the probe — codenamed “Arctic Frost” — during a panel hearing, saying the records revealed “Arctic Frost was much broader than just an electoral matter” and that the investigation “expanded to Republican organizations.”
“Some examples of the groups the [Christopher] Wray FBI sought to place under political investigation included the Republican National Committee, Republican Attorneys General Association and Trump political groups,” Grassley went on.
“On that political list was one of Charlie Kirk’s groups, Turning Point USA,” he added.
“In other words, Arctic Frost wasn’t just a case to politically investigate Trump. 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.”
Arctic Frost kicked off in April 2022 and focused on at least 92 Republican-linked entities like Kirk’s youth activist organization. That November, the case was handed over to special counsel Jack Smith.
Smith would go on to federally charge President Trump with unlawfully hoarding national security documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate and wrongly seeking to overturn the 2020 election results.
The investigation pursued lines of inquiry about purportedly false election fraud claims, fake elector schemes, frivolous lawsuits, financial fraud and pressure on state officials to flip vote counts in Trump’s favor.
“This conspiracy involved subjects from the private sector, in numerous battleground states (Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, New Mexico, and Arizona), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the White House,” one of the newly released FBI documents stated.
The FBI documents also show that the bureau pursued potential crimes related to “J6 $,” an apparent reference to groups that may have backed Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally or participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot that temporarily halted certification of Biden’s electoral victory.
Turning Point USA was one of those groups, though the exact basis of the inquiry is unclear.
Kirk, 31, was shot and killed during a TPUSA speaking engagement at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.
In the wake of his murder, Republicans like Vice President JD Vance and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller have vowed a law enforcement crackdown on left-wing groups “promoting violence.”
Prominent figures swept up in the “Arctic Frost” dragnet included Trump’s PACs and fundraising committees, former personal attorney and ex-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark, among others.
Clark, who suggested states should look at alleged voting irregularities and consider appointing new electors who could change the 2020 election results, said Tuesday on X that the files proved he was “targeted” for his own “financial records.”
Clark now serves as the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulatory czar.
The Arctic Frost files said Clark, who was reportedly under consideration to become acting attorney general after Bill Barr’s departure in December 2020, had “falsely representing that the DOJ had ‘identified significant concerns’ relating to the election that may have impacted the outcome of the election.”
The probe was run in conjunction with the National Archives the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General and the US Postal Service.
Neither of Smith’s cases made it to trial before Trump’s re-election in November 2024 and were ultimately dismissed.
