Grassley says secret subpoenas for lawmakers’ call logs undercut congressional protections
Equal justice apparently isn't equal anymore.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) accused the Justice Department under former President Joe Biden of secretly subpoenaing phone records tied to sitting members of Congress during a politically sensitive Jan. 6, 2021, investigation, saying the effort bypassed constitutional safeguards and blocked lawmakers from asserting their rights.
Grassley made the remarks at a two-hour hearing on Tuesday of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, chaired by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), during which senior legal executives from Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile testified about how they responded to subpoenas issued during the Biden-era Arctic Frost investigation. That inquiry served as the backbone for what ultimately became former special counsel Jack Smith‘s indictments against then-former President Donald Trump during the Biden era.
Sen. Judiciary Cmte. Chair @ChuckGrassley on the Arctic Frost probe: " [Jack] Smith's deceitful conduct was a substantial intrusion… If this happened to my Democratic colleagues, they'd be as rightly outraged as we Republicans are."
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 10, 2026
Arctic Frost was the internal name for the federal investigation into efforts surrounding Trump’s challenge to the 2020 election and the events of Jan. 6, 2021. The investigation began inside the FBI in April 2022, before the appointment of a special counsel, and was overseen by then-FBI Washington Field Office assistant special agent in charge Timothy Thibault, a senior counterintelligence official later removed from the bureau after internal findings of political bias.
The investigation, which gained written approval by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland and then-FBI Director Chris Wray, was later taken over by Smith, whose team ultimately brought criminal charges against Trump. As part of that inquiry, prosecutors sought phone “toll records” — metadata showing which phone numbers contacted one another and when, but not the content of the calls.
Smith’s office and the Biden DOJ used court-authorized nondisclosure orders to secretly obtain phone records associated with sitting lawmakers, preventing Congress from intervening or invoking constitutional protections.
“They intentionally hid their activity from members of Congress,” Grassley said in opening remarks. “That deceitful conduct was a substantial intrusion into the core constitutional activity of constitutional officers.”
Republicans grill phone companies over …
Equal justice apparently isn't equal anymore.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) accused the Justice Department under former President Joe Biden of secretly subpoenaing phone records tied to sitting members of Congress during a politically sensitive Jan. 6, 2021, investigation, saying the effort bypassed constitutional safeguards and blocked lawmakers from asserting their rights.
Grassley made the remarks at a two-hour hearing on Tuesday of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, chaired by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), during which senior legal executives from Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile testified about how they responded to subpoenas issued during the Biden-era Arctic Frost investigation. That inquiry served as the backbone for what ultimately became former special counsel Jack Smith‘s indictments against then-former President Donald Trump during the Biden era.
Sen. Judiciary Cmte. Chair @ChuckGrassley on the Arctic Frost probe: " [Jack] Smith's deceitful conduct was a substantial intrusion… If this happened to my Democratic colleagues, they'd be as rightly outraged as we Republicans are."
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 10, 2026
Arctic Frost was the internal name for the federal investigation into efforts surrounding Trump’s challenge to the 2020 election and the events of Jan. 6, 2021. The investigation began inside the FBI in April 2022, before the appointment of a special counsel, and was overseen by then-FBI Washington Field Office assistant special agent in charge Timothy Thibault, a senior counterintelligence official later removed from the bureau after internal findings of political bias.
The investigation, which gained written approval by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland and then-FBI Director Chris Wray, was later taken over by Smith, whose team ultimately brought criminal charges against Trump. As part of that inquiry, prosecutors sought phone “toll records” — metadata showing which phone numbers contacted one another and when, but not the content of the calls.
Smith’s office and the Biden DOJ used court-authorized nondisclosure orders to secretly obtain phone records associated with sitting lawmakers, preventing Congress from intervening or invoking constitutional protections.
“They intentionally hid their activity from members of Congress,” Grassley said in opening remarks. “That deceitful conduct was a substantial intrusion into the core constitutional activity of constitutional officers.”
Republicans grill phone companies over …
Grassley says secret subpoenas for lawmakers’ call logs undercut congressional protections
Equal justice apparently isn't equal anymore.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) accused the Justice Department under former President Joe Biden of secretly subpoenaing phone records tied to sitting members of Congress during a politically sensitive Jan. 6, 2021, investigation, saying the effort bypassed constitutional safeguards and blocked lawmakers from asserting their rights.
Grassley made the remarks at a two-hour hearing on Tuesday of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, chaired by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), during which senior legal executives from Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile testified about how they responded to subpoenas issued during the Biden-era Arctic Frost investigation. That inquiry served as the backbone for what ultimately became former special counsel Jack Smith‘s indictments against then-former President Donald Trump during the Biden era.
Sen. Judiciary Cmte. Chair @ChuckGrassley on the Arctic Frost probe: " [Jack] Smith's deceitful conduct was a substantial intrusion… If this happened to my Democratic colleagues, they'd be as rightly outraged as we Republicans are."
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 10, 2026
Arctic Frost was the internal name for the federal investigation into efforts surrounding Trump’s challenge to the 2020 election and the events of Jan. 6, 2021. The investigation began inside the FBI in April 2022, before the appointment of a special counsel, and was overseen by then-FBI Washington Field Office assistant special agent in charge Timothy Thibault, a senior counterintelligence official later removed from the bureau after internal findings of political bias.
The investigation, which gained written approval by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland and then-FBI Director Chris Wray, was later taken over by Smith, whose team ultimately brought criminal charges against Trump. As part of that inquiry, prosecutors sought phone “toll records” — metadata showing which phone numbers contacted one another and when, but not the content of the calls.
Smith’s office and the Biden DOJ used court-authorized nondisclosure orders to secretly obtain phone records associated with sitting lawmakers, preventing Congress from intervening or invoking constitutional protections.
“They intentionally hid their activity from members of Congress,” Grassley said in opening remarks. “That deceitful conduct was a substantial intrusion into the core constitutional activity of constitutional officers.”
Republicans grill phone companies over …
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