Senate Republicans announced Monday the FBI, as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s January 6 investigation, used court orders in 2023 to obtain the phone records of nine GOP lawmakers, a move the senators called “political weaponization.”
It’s unclear what exactly investigators were seeking to determine by pulling the records, and there’s no indication that these senators were targets of Smith’s investigation.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley released the FBI record at a news conference Monday, where Republicans emphasized that the phone records were obtained through a grand jury, a lawful process for federal investigators to obtain such documents.
That phone records of some lawmakers were seized in the probe has long been known, since the Justice Department fought a legal battle over the limits of the Constitution’s Speech or Debate clause in order to access lawmakers’ communications.
“There’s no predicate that we can find for the solicitation of these telephone records, which I think emphasizes the political weaponization that was behind all this effort, and we’re still getting more information,” Grassley told reporters.
The lawmakers said that FBI Director Kash Patel turned over information on the subpoenas which sought the toll records, which show the phone numbers called and time and duration of calls but not content.
Patel in a post on X said, “We recently uncovered proof that phone records of U.S. lawmakers were seized for political purposes. That abuse of power ends now.”
The lawmakers were: Sens. Lindsey Graham, Bill Hagerty, Josh Hawley, Dan Sullivan, Tommy Tuberville, Ron Johnson, Cynthia Lummis and Marsha Blackburn, as well as Rep. Mike Kelly.