{"id":19685,"date":"2025-10-25T02:50:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T02:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/?p=19685"},"modified":"2025-10-25T02:50:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T02:50:10","slug":"grassley-reveals-wray-garland-approved-controversial-anti-trump-fbi-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/?p=19685","title":{"rendered":"Grassley Reveals Wray, Garland Approved Controversial Anti-Trump FBI Probe"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released a Justice Department document showing that former Attorney General Merrick Garland, former Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and then\u2013FBI Director Christopher Wray personally authorized the opening of \u201cOperation Arctic Frost.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Operation Arctic Frost was a sweeping 2022 federal investigation that later expanded to target multiple Republican lawmakers and aides connected to President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Grassley\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0the document \u2014 bearing the three officials\u2019 handwritten signatures \u2014 was provided by the Justice Department in response to his formal oversight requests.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust received this doc [from the] DOJ,\u201d Grassley wrote Thursday on X. \u201cProof that Biden Atty General Merrick Garland, Deputy Atty General Lisa Monaco, [and] FBI Dir Chris Wray all PERSONALLY APPROVED opening Arctic Frost. This investigation unleashed unchecked govt power at the highest levels. My oversight will continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to records Grassley released, Arctic Frost began in April 2022 under the supervision of former FBI official Timothy Thibault, who had previously faced scrutiny over his handling of politically sensitive cases.<\/p>\n

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The investigation was transferred that November to Special Counsel Jack Smith, whose team later used elements of Arctic Frost as the foundation for the false elector case against President Trump.<\/p>\n

Internal FBI records uncovered by Grassley\u2019s staff show the operation\u2019s reach went far beyond its initial scope. Among the most explosive findings: the FBI secretly obtained \u201ctolling data\u201d \u2014 detailed phone logs showing time, duration, and location metadata \u2014 for eight sitting Republican senators and one House member between January 4 and January 7, 2021.<\/p>\n

Those targeted, according to the summary from the Senate Judiciary Committee, included:<\/p>\n

\u2013Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u2013Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska)<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u2013Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.)<\/em><\/p>\n

The document, recovered from what the Bureau labeled a \u201cProhibited Access\u201d file \u2014 a restricted system designed to prevent most agents from viewing certain materials \u2014 also detailed how Arctic Frost\u2019s collection methods relied on third-party metadata requests to telecommunications providers.<\/p>\n

While FBI officials claimed the program did not access call content, it did gather routing and geolocation data that can track individuals\u2019 movements in real time.<\/p>\n

Grassley said the use of \u201cProhibited Access\u201d storage suggested intentional concealment. \u201cThis is the same system used to hide politically sensitive investigations from internal review,\u201d his office wrote in a cover memo.<\/p>\n

In a sharply worded statement, Grassley compared Arctic Frost to the 1970s-era Watergate scandal, calling it \u201carguably worse\u201d due to its scale and its direct involvement of senior Justice Department leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019ve uncovered today is disturbing and outrageous political conduct by the Biden FBI,\u201d Grassley said. \u201cThe FBI\u2019s actions were an unconstitutional breach, and Attorney General [Pam] Bondi and Director [Kash] Patel need to hold accountable those involved in this serious wrongdoing. My oversight will continue until every record is made public.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Grassley said whistleblowers first alerted him to the operation in mid-2022. His investigation since then has uncovered evidence that FBI personnel, working with officials in the Biden White House, obtained access to both Trump\u2019s and former Vice President Mike Pence\u2019s government-issued cell phones during the Arctic Frost probe.<\/p>\n

FBI agents reportedly traveled across multiple states using taxpayer funds to conduct interviews of Republican campaign staffers and nonprofit leaders, including those connected to Turning Point USA and several pro-Trump advocacy organizations.<\/p>\n

Last month, Grassley\u2019s office\u00a0released<\/a>\u00a0additional files showing that 92 individuals and groups linked to the GOP had been placed within Arctic Frost\u2019s \u201cinvestigative scope,\u201d effectively treating them as potential subjects or contacts of interest.<\/p>\n

Those disclosures prompted renewed Republican calls for a special congressional inquiry into political surveillance and data collection.<\/p>\n

The new records also reveal that Garland, Monaco, and Wray signed off on Arctic Frost\u2019s launch memo on April 14, 2022 \u2014 weeks before the Justice Department publicly appointed Jack Smith to oversee politically sensitive cases related to January 6 and the 2020 election.<\/p>\n

The signatures, according to Grassley\u2019s staff, demonstrate senior leadership\u2019s approval of investigative authorities, which later justified extensive monitoring of political figures.<\/p>\n

The Department of Justice declined to comment on the release, referring questions to the Office of the Inspector General. Neither Garland nor Wray has publicly addressed Grassley\u2019s documents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0Getty Images This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released a Justice Department document showing that former Attorney General Merrick … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19685"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19687,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19685\/revisions\/19687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}