'Outrageous': Lawmakers bash Biden admin for targeting, surveilling 156 Republicans

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(The Center Square) – The Biden administration’s probe into President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss progressed far beyond investigating potential fraud and potentially targeted 156 conservatives and conservative organizations.

Whistleblower-sourced records, made public Wednesday by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, show that the Arctic Frost probe, pushed by Biden administration special counsel Jack Smith, conducted extensive and legally dubious investigations into Trump-supporting Republicans nationwide. 

Smith, the FBI, and the Department of Justice spent thousands of taxpayer dollars to collect personal cellular phone data, conduct dozens of interviews, and issue 197 subpoenas to 34 individuals and 163 businesses.

“Arctic Frost was the vehicle by which FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors could improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus. Contrary to what Smith has said publicly, this was clearly a fishing expedition,” Grassley told reporters Wednesday. 

“If this had happened to Democrats, they’d be as rightly outraged as we are outraged,” he added. “We’re making these records public in the interest of transparency and so that the American people can draw their own conclusions.”

The records reveal some of the targets on page 60, including multiple state Republican party chairs or former chairs; many state lawmakers and attorneys; individuals believed at the time to be “fake electors;” and conservatives involved in election integrity efforts.

Records of additional individuals and organizations targeted, beginning on page 101, list everyone from Trump campaign staffers to former senior White House advisor Stephen Miller and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino. The list spans multiple states and includes some significant redactions.

The Arctic Frost team also collected phone records of at least nine Republican senators without notifying them, and attempted but failed to collect phone data on others.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., called the records “nothing short of a Biden administration enemies list” and deemed it “far worse, orders of magnitude worse” than the Watergate scandal of the Nixon administration.

“People need to realize how politicized the Biden administration turned all these agencies,” Johnson said. “It’s outrageous, it should shock every American…we need to get to the bottom of this…so that this doesn’t happen again in America.” 

The revelations build on previous documents showing that the Biden administration targeted 92 conservative groups, including the Republican National Committee; Republican Attorneys General Association; the America First Policy Institute; and Turning Point USA, the organization previously headed by political commentator Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot in September.

In a Truth Social post Wednesday, Trump called the investigators a “disgrace to humanity.”

“These thugs should all be investigated and put in prison,” he said. “Deranged Jack Smith is a criminal!!!”