Grassley: Biden FBI spied on nine Republican lawmakers in 2023

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, accused the FBI under former President Joe Biden of spying on nine Republican lawmakers during its “Arctic Frost” investigation — a probe he said later became the foundation for Special Counsel Jack Smith’s case against President Donald Trump.

Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, released a newly declassified FBI document dated Sept. 27, 2023, showing the bureau had approved a “toll analysis” — a type of communications tracking — targeting nine Republican members of Congress. 

“This document shows the Biden FBI spied on 8 of my Republican Senate colleagues during its Arctic Frost investigation into ‘election conspiracy,’” Grassley wrote on X Oct. 6. “Arctic Frost later became Jack Smith’s elector case against Trump. BIDEN FBI WEAPONIZATION = WORSE THAN WATERGATE.” 

The file listed Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, as well as Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa. 

Several of the targeted lawmakers expressed outrage and called for prosecution.

At a press conference announcing the discovery, Johnson — who said he has been helping Grassley investigate — called the surveillance “outrageous” and urged Americans to recognize the situation’s gravity. He said the revelations show a troubling escalation in the Biden administration’s use of federal power against its political opponents.

“To put it all into context, the Mar-a-Lago raid occurred in August of 2022. Jack Smith announced the indictments against President Trump in August of 2023,” Johnson said. “This is almost two months later, they’re casting this net — this fishing expedition — against members of the Senate and the House.” 

“This doesn’t surprise me,” he added, “but it should shock every American of what the Biden administration has done.”

Haggerty said on X that the episode “is exactly the type of political weaponization of the federal government under Presidents Obama and Biden that Republicans and President Trump have been calling out for years.”

Lummis, another senator listed in the document, called the surveillance “a blatant assault on our constitutional rights as elected officials and a calculated attempt to sabotage the separation of powers.”

“Make no mistake: this authoritarian, unconstitutional surveillance and attack on the legislative branch under the Biden administration demands immediate investigation and prosecution,” she added.

Appearing on FOX News Oct. 7, Hawley said he believes agents tracked both his calls and location for several days.

“It’s a violation of the First Amendment. It’s a violation of the separation of powers,” Hawley said, “and it also goes to show you the extent to which the Biden administration was so corrupt, using the FBI to target their political enemies.”

He noted that the Biden FBI has also targeted conservative parents at school board meetings, attempted to recruit spies to investigate Catholic parishes, and flagged conservative groups such as Turning Point USA.

FBI Director Kash Patel responded Oct. 7, saying that the bureau has already taken actions against the “baseless monitoring of members of Congress by the prior leadership team of the FBI.” 

Patel said several employees have been terminated, “the weaponized CR-15 squad” was disbanded, and an internal investigation is underway. 

Trump also weighed in, writing on Truth Social, “Deranged Jack Smith got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.” 

According to a Judiciary Committee statement, the Arctic Frost probe was opened in April 2022 by former agent Timothy Thibault and reassigned to Smith in November 2022. 

The statement said officials in the Biden White House “personally assisted” the FBI in obtaining the government-issued cell phones of Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence, and that agents used taxpayer funds to travel nationwide and conduct dozens of interviews tied to the probe.

Last month, Grassley released records showing the FBI also placed 92 Republican-linked individuals and organizations — including Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA — under Arctic Frost’s investigative scope.