President Donald Trump has just unloaded a verbal haymaker on former Special Counsel Jack Smith, branding him a "sleazebag" for overseeing an FBI operation that snooped on Republican lawmakers’ phone records.
Here’s the crux: a shocking document revealed by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, exposed that the FBI, under Smith’s watch during the Biden administration’s "Arctic Frost" probe into 2020 election interference, conducted a detailed analysis of phone records belonging to eight GOP senators and one representative in 2023, as New York Post reports.
Let’s rewind to April 2022, when the FBI kicked off the Arctic Frost investigation to dig into concerns over the 2020 election.
Later that year, Jack Smith stepped in to lead the probe, steering it into territory that now has conservatives fuming.
Fast forward to 2023, and the FBI was quietly running what they called a "preliminary toll analysis" on the phone records of prominent Republicans, including Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Josh Hawley of Missouri, and six other senators, plus Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania.
This wasn’t about listening to calls, mind you—Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., clarified it was about tracking who called whom and when, which still feels like a privacy gut punch to many on the right.
The bombshell dropped on Monday when Grassley released a one-page document dated Sept. 27, 2023, titled “CAST Assistance,” referencing the FBI’s cellular analysis team and confirming this invasive peek into GOP communications.
How did this even come to light? Apparently, FBI Director Kash Patel’s team stumbled upon the file when an employee cited it as a past example while seeking recertification for the bureau’s CAST system, per Sen. Johnson’s account.
Grassley didn’t hold back, declaring, “Based on the evidence to date, Arctic Frost and related weaponization by federal law enforcement under Biden was arguably worse than Watergate,” in a statement that’s got conservatives nodding in grim agreement.
Grassley’s frustration boiled over when he told reporters, “If heads don’t roll in this town, nothing changes.”
That sentiment echoes through the halls of Congress, where GOP senators are livid and vowing to launch a full investigation into how their personal data got swept up in Smith’s dragnet.
Adding fuel to the fire, earlier revelations showed the FBI also targeted phone data linked to Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence under Arctic Frost, alongside 92 Republican-affiliated groups or individuals, including Turning Point USA, as uncovered last month.
Smith, no stranger to controversy, previously led the Justice Department team that slapped Trump with 44 felony counts across two indictments tied to the Mar-a-Lago documents and 2020 election interference cases, making this latest revelation feel like another chapter in a personal vendetta to many conservatives.
Since Trump’s return to the White House, his administration has been laser-focused on scrutinizing Justice Department figures tied to probes into the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, with officials confirming in August that the Office of the Special Counsel opened an investigation into Smith himself.
Smith, for his part, remains defiant, reportedly standing by his belief that Trump would have faced conviction if not for his reelection, a stance that only deepens the divide between the MAGA faithful and those seen as part of a politicized justice system. Let’s be real—when the FBI starts playing phone tag with elected officials under the guise of an investigation, it’s not just a policy misstep; it’s a trust-shattering move that demands accountability, not excuses.
