Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) revealed on Monday that the FBI under the Biden administration obtained private cellphone information from nine GOP lawmakers, including Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.). All of the targeted lawmakers are Republicans.
In breaking the news with an internal FBI document, Sen. Grassley wrote on X, "BIDEN FBI WEAPONIZATION = WORSE THAN WATERGATE."
Commenting on the news, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who was also named in the document, said, "We were surveilled simply for being Republicans. ... It should shock every American." He called the surveillance "an outrageous abuse of power" and "blatant political persecution."
The surveillance took place as part of the FBI's Arctic Frost investigation into the 2020 election. Operation Arctic Frost, launched in April 2022, was handed to special counsel Jack Smith in November of that year, who used it as the basis for the charges filed against President Trump in August 2023.
