Share and Follow
On Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan announced that the Justice Department, under the administration of former President Joe Biden, had covertly accessed his phone records over a two-year span. This was part of the investigation known as Arctic Frost.
Jordan, a Republican from Ohio, joins the ranks of lawmakers targeted by former Special Counsel Jack Smith in a wide-ranging inquiry into the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. This investigation ultimately led to the indictment of former President Donald Trump.
“They spied on President Trump. They spied on Senators. Now, we just learned, they spied on me,” Jordan expressed on the social media platform X. “If they can do it to us, they can do it to you.”
As per the documents released by Jordan, a federal grand jury issued a subpoena on April 25, 2022, for his “call detail records” to Verizon. This subpoena, signed by prosecutor Timothy Duree from Smith’s team, sought access to text messages and voicemails as well.
The demand directed Verizon to supply records dating back to January 1, 2020, up to the present time.
“Means and source of payment for such service (including any credit card or bank account number) and billing records,” were also requested, along with information about “session times and durations,” location data and IP addresses.
The subpoena was accompanied by a nondisclosure order signed by Magistrate Judge David A. Baker, forcing Verizon to keep quiet about the subpoena.
“[T]he Court finds reasonable grounds to believe that such disclosure will result in flight from prosecution, destruction of or tampering with evidence, intimidation of potential witnesses, and serious jeopardy to the investigation,” the order stated.
Jordan described the subpoena as “ridiculous” and the “epitome of weaponization of government” in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
“All the way back to January of 2020, they gathered information that told them who I call, who called me, when we called each other, when the call took place, how long the call was and where I was at when I made that call – they got location as well – and they gathered that over a time period of 28 months,” the chairman fumed.
“This is how ridiculous this is and why we are doing everything to get to the bottom of it.”
Jordan noted that, from his understanding of the subpoena, Smith’s team did not obtain the contents of his text messages or phone calls.
Last month, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) accused the FBI and DOJ under Biden of using the Arctic Frost probe as a “vehicle by which FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors could improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus.”
Subpoenas for the phone records of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and at least 10 Republican senators, including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) were previously revealed by Grassley to have been sought by the DOJ.