Newly released documents show that the FBI collected and analyzed phone records of several Republican senators during its investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The records, revealed on Monday by Republican senators, show that the FBI looked at call data from more than half a dozen lawmakers.
The information included the dates and times of calls but did not capture the actual content of conversations, the senators said.
Highlights
- The FBI collected phone records of Republican lawmakers in 2023 during an investigation into the January 6 Capitol attack.
- The records showed call dates, times, and locations, but not call content, subpoenaed via grand jury order.
- The 'Arctic Frost' investigation, led by Jack Smith, mapped calls to track election overturn efforts post-2020 vote.
Documents reveal the FBI collected phone records of Republican senators in 2023
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The surveillance took place in 2023, during former President Joe Biden’s term, into efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election.
The FBI used a tool known as “preliminary toll analysis” to examine the phone records. Investigators subpoenaed major telephone companies to get the data, and a grand jury authorized the subpoenas.
The FBI document detailing this action is dated September 27, 2023.
It lists the following lawmakers whose records were examined: Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania.
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Most of these lawmakers were part of a group that planned to challenge the 2020 election results.
On January 6, 2021, rioters stormed the Capitol to try to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory.
After the violence, some of the lawmakers listed voted to certify the results, while others still objected.
The FBI’s analysis was part of a larger investigation called ‘Arctic Frost,’ Fox News revealed in an exclusive. Former Special Counsel Jack Smith ran the case. His team used toll records to map communications in the days around the January 6 events.
According to an unnamed FBI official quoted by Fox News, Smith and his team tracked the numbers of the senators, as well as the locations of the origin and receiving ends of the call. The Arctic Frost probe cost taxpayers more than $50 million, Fox News reported.
Former Special Counsel for the DOJ Jack Smith ran the case
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An internal FBI memo titled ‘CAST Assistance,’ referring to the bureau’s Cellular Analysis Survey Team, details the data collection.
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, obtained the document through an oversight request.
He released it publicly on Monday, calling the FBI’s actions a “violation of personal property and people’s rights and the law and their constitutional rights.”
“As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee [in 2021], I did the job I felt necessary and to believe that the Department of Justice or a Special Counsel would subpoena who I called, where I called from should bother everybody. It certainly bothers the hell out of me,” he said in a statement.
FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, both appointed after Trump returned to the White House this year, discovered the Arctic Frost memo during a review of past cases.
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On Monday, they briefed the affected lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Bongino said it was critical to inform the senators after finding the records.
“It is a disgrace that I have to stand on Capitol Hill and reveal this—that the FBI was once weaponized to track the private communications of U.S. lawmakers for political purposes,” Bongino told Fox News Digital. “That era is over.”
“Under our leadership, the FBI will never again be used as a political weapon against the American people,” he added.
The FBI’s Dan Bongino and Kash Patel discovered the Arctic Frost memo
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The Arctic Frost investigation ended after Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election, based on a long-standing legal policy by the Department of Justice that a sitting president cannot face federal prosecution.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune wrote on social media that he had “grave concerns” about the incident.
“I fully support Senate committees getting to the bottom of this outrageous abuse of power and weaponization of the government,” he said.
Grassley also called for greater accountability and urged that more FBI officials be dismissed over the investigation, saying, “If heads don’t roll in this town, nothing changes.”
An FBI official told Fox News Digital that Arctic Frost is classified as a “prohibited case,” meaning the review required agents to take extra steps to ensure full transparency.
Patel stated that the bureau is committed to full transparency. “The American people deserve the truth, and under my leadership, they will have it. We promised accountability for those who weaponized law enforcement, and we will deliver it,” Patel told Fox News Digital.