Kash Patel vows end to FBI weaponization after Jack Smith spied on GOP senators

On Monday, Senator Chuck Grassley released a document showing that under the Arctic Frost investigation, which "formed the basis of Jack Smith’s elector case against President Donald Trump," the FBI spied on eight Republican senators’ personal cell phones as well as a GOP representative. Current FBi Director Kash Patel has vowed that the bureau, under his leadership, "will deliver truth and accountability, and never again be weaponized against the American people."

Patel said, "We recently uncovered proof that phone records of U.S. lawmakers were seized for political purposes," referring to the document that was given to Grassley in response to oversight requests. "That abuse of power ends now," Patel continued. "Under my leadership, the FBI will deliver truth and accountability, and never again be weaponized against the American people." Arctic Frist was opened in April 2022, and Smith took over the probe as special counsel in November of the same year.

The document, dated September 27, 2023, stated that an FBI special agent had conducted "toll analysis on limited tolls records" associated with Senators Lindsey Graham, Bill Hagerty, Josh Hawley, Dan Sullivan, Tommy Tuberville, Ron Johnson, Cynthia Lumis, and Marsha Blackburn, as well as Rep Mike Kelly.

An FBI official told Fox News that through the tracking, Smith and his team were able to see what phone numbers the senators called, the location of the phone call’s origination, and the location of where it was received.

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino told the outlet, "It is a disgrace that I have to stand on Capitol Hill and reveal this — that the FBI was once weaponized to track the private communications of U.S. lawmakers for political purposes. That era is over." He added, "Under our leadership, the FBI will never again be used as a political weapon against the American people."

Graham wrote that Patel and Bongino "are trying to clean up the mess they inherited. They should be congratulated for finding this and exposing it. What happened should unnerve everybody."

Hagerty said, "Jack Smith tracked my private communications and those of my colleagues during his witch hunt to investigate POTUS. This 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. We will get to the bottom of this, but every American should be shocked to see what happened here."

Hawley wrote, "This is an abuse of power beyond Watergate, beyond J. Edgar Hoover, one that directly strikes at the Constitution, the separation of powers, and the First Amendment. We need a full investigation of all involved: who knew about it, who ordered it, and who approved it. Anyone and everyone who violated the law must be prosecuted. The way to save the country is to restore the rule of law."

Tuberville said, "I expected that countries like China and North Korea would go after me when I got to the Senate. But I never expected it would be my own country under Joe Biden tapping my phone."

Johnson said he was not surprised by the revelation, "but it should shock every American. What the Biden Administration has done is an outrageous abuse of power — it is blatant political persecution. Those responsible must be held fully accountable."

Lumis said, "I’m absolutely appalled that the Biden administration used the FBI to spy on the private communications of Republican US Senators - myself included. This was 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."

Blackburn said, "This was the weaponization of one of our nation’s top intelligence agencies, and those responsible must be held to account."