Administrative State

The following is the prepared testimony of The Federalist’s Senior Legal Correspondent Margot Cleveland for a March 24 hearing titled “Arctic Frost: A Modern Watergate” before the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights.

Chairman Cruz, Ranking Member Whitehouse, and Members of the Subcommittee,

Thank you for the opportunity to testify concerning the grave constitutional violations inflicted as part of the Arctic Frost investigation.

After the 2020 election, an anti-Trump FBI agent named Tim Thibault attempted to use the justice department to destroy the President. Thibault’s efforts led to the launch of Arctic Frost. Soon after, Merrick Garland tapped Jack Smith, a “hyper-aggressive prosecutor,” known to “overstretch the meaning and intent of the law,” to serve as Special Counsel.

Smith proved himself true to form, indicting Trump for allegedly violating a statute enacted in the aftermath of Enron, based in part on a theory of criminal liability the Supreme Court would later hold invalid. The Supreme Court would later halt Smith’s efforts to prosecute Trump for actions that fell within the President’s official duties.

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s targeting of Kash Patel and numerous congressional Republicans as part of his lawfare against Donald Trump was worse than originally thought, new records show.

Released Tuesday by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the new documents demonstrate that Smith and his team’s efforts to acquire Patel’s phone records during his time as a private citizen were far more extensive than previously reported. The bid to acquire such information came as part of Smith’s Arctic Frost investigation, which ultimately became his elector lawfare against Trump.

Now-FBI Director Patel originally told Reuters last month that the Biden FBI had subpoenaed his phone records, as well as those of then-Trump confidant and now-White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. The subpoenas covered phone calls from 2022 and 2023, with Patel claiming that Smith’s collection of Wiles’ phone records “extended into [her] time as Trump’s co-campaign manager, though he did not say when exactly the record collection began or ended,” according to the outlet.

Fox News Digital revealed other Republicans former special counsel Jack Smith targeted during his investigation into President Donald Trump.

We already know that Smith tracked and targeted over 400 Republicans, including senators.

The new emails exposed a spiderweb containing members of the House and Senate who had contact with the main people in Smith’s investigation, such as Trump, Mark Meadows, and Rudy Giuliani:

New names within the emails obtained by Fox News Digital include Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and former Rep. Lee Zeldin, who now leads the Environmental Protection Agency.

“I’d like to seek [the Public Integrity Section’s] concurrence to get phone tolls for several MOCs who had contact with pertinent parties in our investigation,” wrote DOJ lawyer Timothy Duree. “I’ll keep the timeframe tight—probably October 1, 2020, to January 31, 2021.”

Duree produced 16 names and said he wanted to discuss whether to “subpoena these all at once.” The list included Reps. Babin and Biggs and now former Reps. Mo Brooks, Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar, Louie Gohmert, Zeldin and Jody Hice. The list also included Gohmert’s chief of staff Connie Hair, and seven senators whose names were previously revealed through public disclosures, such as Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.