Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., sent letters to three major telecom companies to ask why they cooperated with former President Joe Biden's FBI to allegedly track the private communications and phone calls of her and seven Republican colleagues.
Blackburn said Friday she had written to AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon seeking a full accounting of how subpoenas in the Justice Department's "Arctic Frost" probe were handled and whether the carriers challenged those demands.
The senator said the subpoenas, issued in 2023 as part of the investigation that later fed into special counsel Jack Smith's probe of President Donald Trump, sought so-called tolling data covering calls from Jan. 4-7, 2021.
"We first learned that the Biden Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) spied on duly elected members of Congress, specifically seeking and ultimately obtaining 'tolling data' from cell phones as part of its corrupt, politically motivated Arctic Frost investigation," Blackburn wrote in the letters dated Oct. 9.
She demanded the companies identify who authorized compliance, the date the decisions were approved, and why they allegedly declined to move to quash the subpoenas.
"The FBI under Joe Biden's watch exercised authority that it did not have," she said in a statement released Monday, thanking Justice Department and FBI leadership aligned with the Trump administration for launching follow-up reviews.
On Monday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, disclosed on X a bureau document dated Sept. 27, 2023, showing that FBI agents had performed toll-record analysis on several GOP lawmakers as part of the Arctic Frost inquiry.
Grassley called the revelation "worse than Watergate," and the list of lawmakers reportedly included Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., and Blackburn, as well as Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa.
The records reviewed would have revealed metadata — dates, times, durations and locations of calls — but not the contents of conversations. The senators said the investigative step was approved by a grand jury, though they have insisted there was no criminal predicate justifying subpoenas for members of Congress.
Blackburn's letters echo those concerns, asking carriers to confirm whether any criminal predicate existed and to explain what steps were taken to protect the privacy of lawmakers.
"We deserve transparency on this invasion of privacy, and I can assure you that accountability is coming," she wrote.
The disclosures are likely to intensify Republican calls for congressional oversight and possible personnel consequences at the FBI, Newsmax reported. Blackburn said she supports ongoing inquiries and praised efforts by officials she trusts to "root out the bad actors" responsible for the alleged surveillance.
The three carriers have not publicly responded to Blackburn's letters as of the release of her statement. Blackburn asked for prompt answers and signaled further action if carriers cannot satisfactorily explain why subpoenas for senators' phone records were apparently processed without challenge.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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