Newly released Justice Department documents provide details on former special counsel Jack Smith’s subpoenas for phone records of current administration officials and members of Congress.
The documents were made public shortly before a hearing by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights, titled “Arctic Frost: A Modern Watergate.” They reveal how Smith’s probe demanded current FBI Director Kash Patel’s phone records and proposed subpoenas for records of 14 members of Congress.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released the documents along with Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, chairman of the subcommittee that held the hearing on Tuesday.
Cruz compared the data gathering by Smith’s team to the scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974.
“It is a modern Watergate, trading a break-in at one office for a digital sweep into approximately 100,000 private communicators, more than a dozen senators, and thousands of individuals’ lives,” Cruz said.
“It is something far broader, an operation that aligned Democrats across all three branches of government: the Biden executive branch, through DOJ and the FBI, wielding investigative power against political opponents; Democrat-appointed judges in the judiciary, through warrants, secrecy orders, and deference, failing to serve as a meaningful check; and members of the legislative branch, who should be the first line of oversight, choosing instead to look the other way,” Cruz continued.
In 2025, the Senate Judiciary Committee released a set of documents that showed Smith’s team collected phone data from nine Republican senators and one Republican House member in the investigation, dubbed “Arctic Frost.”
The new batch of documents shows Smith’s team wanted even more members’ records.
Cruz noted the Smith team sought records of about one-fifth of Senate Republicans. He asked Will Chamberlain, senior counsel for the Article III Project, a watchdog group, how he would compare the Arctic Frost probe to the Watergate scandal.
Chamberlain brought up the surveillance of then-Trump campaign manager Susie Wiles and her lawyer. Wiles is now the White House chief of staff. According to reports, the FBI recorded a phone call between Wiles and her lawyer without her knowledge.
“If anything, it might even be greater. The scope of this, in terms of the sheer number of people and organizations affected, this brazen violation of attorney-client privilege, wiretapping, a phone call between Susie Wiles and her lawyer,” Chamberlain told the Senate panel. “These are egregious offenses, and if Watergate was just about a single break-in, this is effectively compounding that by 200.”
Smith issued two subpoenas to Verizon, requesting about two years of Patel’s phone records spanning January 2021 through February 2023, the documents show.
The subpoenas sought Patel’s residential and email addresses and phone connection records, including records of text messages sent and received. Such information would not include the content of conversations by phone or text.
Federal judges approved nondisclosure agreements for the requests, asserting there were “reasonable grounds” because disclosure of the subpoenas “will result” in actions such as flight from prosecution and evidence tampering.
The Democrat witness in the hearing, former FBI Special Agent Christopher O’Leary, said the problems at the FBI only began with Patel removing personnel as retribution.
“Allegations that the FBI has engaged in broad coordinated conspiracies to investigate individuals based on political affiliation or ideology are inconsistent with my experience and unsupported by evidence or reason,” O’Leary said.
“The absence of credibility to these claims has not deterred Director Kash Patel from pursuing what can only be understood as a campaign of retribution against his own personnel.”
An email on Jan. 10, 2023, discussed plans to subpoena toll records for various members of Congress and staff, including Republican Reps. Brian Babin of Texas; Andy Biggs of Arizona, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Jody Hice of Georgia, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Lee Zeldin of New York; as well as Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Cruz.
“The records include a wish list created by Smith’s team naming 14 members of Congress for whom they wanted to seek tolling data. Some of those members are senators on this very committee,” Grassley said.
“But, the list notes that Smith’s team already knew these members had communications, to include text messages for some members, with individuals associated with President Trump.”
In January, Smith testified before the House Judiciary Committee and defended obtaining the metadata on members of Congress.
“For the conspiracy that we were investigating, it was relevant to get full records to understand the scope of that conspiracy,” Smith told the House panel. He added, “In conducting a criminal investigation, securing non-content toll records, as you described, is a common practice in almost any complex concern.”
