Jack Smith spent three years telling America his investigation was by the book.
New documents released today show the operation ran longer, reached further, and was hidden more deliberately than Smith ever admitted.
What Senate Republicans just pulled out of Jack Smith's files is going to make a lot of people very uncomfortable.
Jack Smith Subpoenaed Two Years of Kash Patel Phone Records in Secret
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley revealed today that Jack Smith's team issued the first subpoena to Verizon on November 23, 2022, demanding records going back to January 1, 2021. The second arrived February 22, 2023, pulling everything back to October 1, 2020 – the final stretch of the presidential campaign.
The records did not capture conversation content. They captured everything else: who Patel called, who called him, when, how often, from where.
Smith also pulled Patel's mailing address, residential address, and email address – enough to build a complete picture of who the man was talking to and from where.
Verizon complied. Court-ordered nondisclosure orders signed by Obama-appointed judges Beryl Howell and Magistrate Judge James Mazzone ensured Patel would not learn his records had been seized.
For an extended period, he had no idea Smith's team was holding a detailed log of his communications.
Patel is now the Director of the FBI.
Arctic Frost Investigation Targeted 14 GOP Members of Congress
Internal DOJ emails from January 2023 show Smith's team had already identified which Republican members of Congress were in contact with Trump allies during the post-election period – and subpoenaed their records anyway.
The target list named 14 members of Congress. On the House side: Louie Gohmert, Paul Gosar, Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Mo Brooks, Lee Zeldin, and Brian Babin. On the Senate side: Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Marsha Blackburn, Bill Hagerty, and Dan Sullivan. Several of those senators were seated at the dais taking testimony yesterday.
An internal email captured the moment Smith's team realized the scale of what they were about to do: "before we tell Main [Justice] we are going to fire off subpoenas for so many members tolls I should make sure Jack's aware."
Jack was aware. AG briefing documents released today show Smith planned to brief Merrick Garland directly.
They also show Obama-appointed Judge James Boasberg – who has ruled against the Trump administration repeatedly – was involved in greenlighting the congressional surveillance before it moved forward.
Verizon ultimately produced records tied to 12 Republican phone numbers covering January 4–7, 2021. AT&T was the only carrier to push back, questioning whether a subpoena for Ted Cruz's records would violate his constitutional protections as a sitting senator. Smith's team quietly dropped that specific request and moved on.
Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile together received at least 84 subpoenas tied to the Arctic Frost probe – and every one of them went to Republicans.
How the Biden DOJ Weaponized the Justice Department Against Trump Allies
Smith's operation ran for years. Grassley's office has documented 197 subpoenas seeking financial records from over 400 Republican organizations and individuals – on top of the congressional toll records now coming to light.
The surveillance was concealed from targets by court-ordered nondisclosure orders, and when one carrier pushed back on constitutional grounds, Smith backed down.
Grassley flagged that retreat directly: if the constitutional concerns were serious enough to make Smith drop one subpoena, they were serious enough to question why the others were ever issued.
Then there is what Smith told Congress. His Special Counsel Report claimed the January 6 committee materials represented a small part of his investigative record and that facts used for prosecution decisions were independently developed.
Yesterday's AG briefing documents say otherwise. Smith's team went through the committee's report "page by page," incorporated it into their investigative plan, and intended to "leverage" it to avoid conducting their own interviews.
That is the opposite of what Smith told Congress.
"Jack Smith misled Congress and the public," Grassley said in his opening statement, "if not outright lied."
Grassley has been pulling this thread since 2022 – through whistleblowers, subpoenas to AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, and thousands of pages of records released over three years.
Democrats wanted Smith in front of a microphone before the documents were in hand. Grassley waited. The man Smith secretly surveilled now sits behind the desk at FBI headquarters. And Grassley is calling what Smith did what it is.
Sources:
- Chuck Grassley, "Grassley Releases New Arctic Frost Records, Raising Additional Questions about Jack Smith's Conduct and Candor," Senate Judiciary Committee, March 24, 2026.
- Shawn Fleetwood, "New Docs: Jack Smith's Arctic Frost Lawfare Against Patel, GOP Was Worse Than Originally Thought," The Federalist, March 24, 2026.
- Fred Lucas, "Newly Released Records Show Expanded Data Sweep Plans of Jack Smith's 'Arctic Frost' Probe," The Daily Signal, March 24, 2026.
- Daily Caller News Foundation, "Jack Smith Secretly Sought Nearly Two Years of Kash Patel Phone Records, Subpoenas Show," The Daily Caller, March 24, 2026.
- Stephen Dinan, "Jack Smith Sought Phone Records of Kash Patel Before He Was FBI Chief," The Washington Times, March 24, 2026.
- Washington Examiner Staff, "Biden DOJ Sought Nearly Two Years of Cellphone Data for Kash Patel," Washington Examiner, March 24, 2026.
