Earlier this month, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) disclosed that special counsel Jack Smith tracked the communications of eight Republican senators (and one congressman) as part of his Arctic Frost investigation into President Donald Trump’s actions after the 2020 presidential election.
The group included Sens. Marsha Blackburn (TN), Lindsey Graham (SC), Bill Hagerty (TN), Josh Hawley (MO), Ron Johnson (WI), Cynthia Lummis (WY), Dan Sullivan (AK), Tommy Tuberville (AL) and Rep. Mike Kelly (PA).
During a Tuesday night appearance on Fox News’ Hannity, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) revealed that the Biden Department of Justice had also tried to obtain his telephone records. Fortunately, his cell phone carrier, AT&T, objected to the request.
Cruz said:
They issued a subpoena … and AT&T, to their credit, said no — we’re not going to hand this over.The Biden DOJ subpoenaed the phone records of nearly 20% of Republicans in the United States Senate. This was a fishing expedition. It was an abuse of power. By the way, they launched Arctic Frost — this witch hunt — just three days after Donald Trump launched his reelection campaign. This was all about politics.And Arctic Frost is, I think, the Biden Department of Justice’s Watergate; it is pure weaponization, going after their political opponents. … And I think the Biden DOJ needs to be held to account.
Sources “directly familiar” with the matter confirmed Cruz’s allegations to Axios.
In response to a request for comment from Axios, Cruz issued the following statement:
Arctic Frost was the Biden administration’s 21st-century digital Watergate.They weaponized the DOJ and FBI to try to access records on me, President Trump, and other political opponents of the Democrat Party.It was intentional, targeted political spying that likely went to the very highest levels of the administration — demonstrating utter contempt for the Constitution and separation of powers — and there should be the broadest possible investigations and accountability.
Last week, the House Judiciary Committee demanded that Smith testify about what his “prosecutorial misconduct and constitutional abuses” in his investigation of Trump.
In the Committee’s October 14 subpoena to Smith, Committee Chairman Jim Jordan wrote:
Among the disturbing tactics employed in that prosecution, your team sought to silence President Trump by restricting his public statements about the case, conducted an unnecessary and abusive raid of his residence, attempted to improperly pressure defense counsel with the promise of political patronage, and manipulated key evidence in the investigation.
For his part, Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) — whose record of lying to the public may even eclipse that of Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) — issued a statement rejecting the subpoena’s allegations. Raskin wrote:
An extraordinary years-long MAGA cover-up has deprived the American public of the opportunity to read this special counsel report that the taxpayers paid for.When our Republican colleagues complete their nostalgic rerun investigations of the Biden Administration and fail yet again to identify even a whiff of wrongdoing in Jack Smith’s work, we hope they will join Committee Democrats in demanding serious accountability from this DOJ.
Given the recent indictments of Trump’s former national security advisor John Bolton, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and former FBI Director James Comey, Democrats have been quick to accuse the Trump DOJ of weaponizing the law against his enemies.
The key difference between the 88 criminal counts filed against Trump across four indictments and the accusations involving Bolton, James, and Comey, is that the former appear to have been fabricated, while the latter are far more specific, substantive, and — if proven — constitute actual crimes supported by evidence.
In Trump’s case, the Biden Department of Justice and state prosecutors often had to contort existing laws to transform misdemeanors into felonies or to revive expired claims. For example, in E. Jean Carroll’s civil rape case against Trump, the statute of limitations had long since expired — until New York lawmakers passed a law in 2022 creating a one-year window that allowed previously time-barred civil suits for sexual assault to proceed.
As Democrats try to cover up the extraordinary lengths they went to in their unwarranted, relentless, and unprecedented pursuit of Trump after he announced his 2024 presidential bid, they’ve developed a collective case of amnesia about their actions.
While their continued gaslighting may satisfy their base, the party seems to have lost much of the middle, who were paying attention to the documents released by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe in July. Maybe that’s why the Democratic Party’s overall approval has cratered over the past year.
I look forward to watching Jack Smith testify before Congress. After years as a seasoned prosecutor, he’s unlikely to reveal much. Still, his demeanor and even the questions he refuses to answer will speak volumes — and perhaps, just perhaps, a flicker of the truth will shine through.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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