House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan said that the Department of Justice (DOJ) subpoenaed his personal phone records in 2022, seeking more than two years of private communications data.
Speaking on Fox News with Sean Hannity on Thursday night, the Republican representative from Ohio said the order was issued in the Arctic Frost investigation headed by Jack Smith, then special counsel for the DOJ. The probe led to charges leveled against then former President Donald Trump.
Why It Matters
According to the GOP-led Senate Judiciary Committee, the cellphones of Republican lawmakers were targeted in Arctic Frost during former President Joe Biden’s tenure in the White House. The probe investigated whether Trump and his allies broke the law in alleged efforts to overturn results of the 2020 presidential election.
The FBI has fired multiple employees and dismantled its CR-15 public corruption unit after the revelations were aired. “They tracked the communications of GOP Senators,” FBI Director Kash Patel posted to X last month. “They weaponized law enforcement against the American people. That era is over.”
What To Know
Jordan claimed that in April 2022, lawyers subpoenaed Verizon for his phone records, seeking 28 months of mobile phone data, which included the time and recipient of a call, the call’s duration and the general location data associated with the call. The contents of the calls were not accessed by the FBI, Jordan added.
Speaking to Fox’s Hannity, live on the host’s eponymous program Hannity, Jordan said: “It’s always worse than we thought. We know they spied on President Trump, then we learned it’s senators and the speaker of the House. Then we learn that they spied on me for 2 1/2 years.”
Jordan demanded to know if Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland had known about the investigation: “Who signed off on this? Did [former FBI Director] Chris Wray know about this? This is the Biden DOJ. Did Merrick Garland know about this because the subpoena was sent in April 2022. Did Lisa Monaco, the deputy attorney general, who signed off on this?”
Jordan also claimed that the FBI secured a court order of secrecy on the Verizon probe, which ruled that “the Court finds reasonable grounds to believe that such disclosure will result in flight from prosecution, destruction of or tampering with evidence, intimidation of potential witnesses.”
What Is the Arctic Frost Investigation?
The Senate Judiciary Committee has found that the FBI accessed data on Republican lawmakers’ phone usage from January 4 to January 7, 2021, the dates surrounding and including the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Arctic Frost formed the basis of Smith’s inquiry into 2020 election interference, which led to a federal indictment of Trump in August 2023, though charges were dropped following his 2024 presidential election victory.
What People Are Saying
Jordan, on Hannity: “It’s that mindset that anyone who works for President Trump is the enemy and we’re going after them. That’s what they did.”
What Happens Next
Jordan floated the idea of stripping agencies’ ability to request mobile phone records from telecommunications companies, telling Hannity: “We’re looking at all kinds of legislation.”
Critics argue that the Trump administration is mounting a campaign against its political opponents.
This is a developing story that will be updated with additional information.
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