Former President Joe Biden’s term in office was surrounded by controversy and mismanagement – but no scandal was bigger than the “Watergate”-level spying scandal that just erupted.
It was just discovered that special counsel Jack Smith secretly subpoenaed nearly two years’ worth of FBI Director Kash Patel’s private phone records, bank account information, email addresses, and other personal data while Patel was a private citizen.
The spying went far more extensively than previously thought, according to bombshell new documents just released Tuesday.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, made the records public alongside Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, ahead of a subcommittee hearing titled “Arctic Frost: A Modern Watergate.”
Arctic Frost was the internal FBI code name for the spying that became Smith’s criminal case against President Donald Trump over the 2020 election.
Two grand jury subpoenas issued to Verizon demanded all Patel’s records from October 1, 2020 through February 22, 2023, and from January 1, 2021 through November 23, 2022. The FBI captured his private call logs, text message metadata, residential and email addresses, billing records, IP addresses, device identifiers, and bank account and credit card numbers.
Federal judges also issued orders barring Patel from being notified of the existence of the subpoenas. The orders — granted by Magistrate Judge James Mazzone and then-Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, an Obama appointee — cited “reasonable grounds” to keep them secret.
Newly released internal documents also show Smith’s team briefing then-Chief Judge Howell and now-Chief D.C. District Judge James Boasberg on their legal strategy targeting Trump and his associates. A January 2023 briefing summary showed Howell supported handling the matters secretly, with the Biden DOJ quoting that she “loves that idea.”
Republicans say this is further evidence that the investigation was steeped in misconduct and conflict of interest.
Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T received at least 84 subpoenas during the Arctic Frost investigation, according to Grassley. AT&T was the only carrier to push back, demanding that Smith’s team explain how the request for Sen. Cruz’s was constitutional.
Documents also show Smith’s team drew up a wish list of 14 Republican members of Congress for whom they wanted information on that included now-EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, and Rep. Paul Gosar.
“Before we tell Main [Justice] we are going to fire off subpoenas for so many members tolls I should make sure Jack’s aware,” one internal email from a Smith prosecutor read, according to the released records.
Grassley said in his opening statement that the documents show Smith “misled Congress and the public, if not outright lied” about aspects of the probe.
“What we confront today, the Biden administration’s ‘Arctic Frost’ scheme, is not a single act,” Grassley said.
“The American people deserve to know the full extent of Jack Smith’s partisan investigative tactics that unjustly targeted sitting Members of Congress as well as ordinary law-abiding citizens,” Sen. Johnson said in a statement. “I expect AT&T and Verizon to fully comply with my January 13, 2026 subpoenas for records that will provide Senator Grassley and me with even more evidence of the Biden administration’s efforts to weaponize the federal justice system against President Trump and his allies.”
The FBI said in a statement that the records “show improper actions by Smith and the FBI at the time.”