Jack Smith spent two years secretly vacuuming up the private phone records of the man who now runs the FBI.
That was already known. What wasn't known – until Tuesday – was how much worse it actually got.
New documents released by Senators Chuck Grassley, Ron Johnson, and Ted Cruz show that Smith's Arctic Frost surveillance operation against Kash Patel, sitting members of Congress, and their staffers was far broader than anyone had reported.
Smith Went After Patel's Every Call, Text, and Home Address
Smith's team issued two separate Verizon subpoenas targeting Patel – then a private citizen – covering roughly two full years of his personal communications.
The first, issued November 23, 2022, demanded records from January 1, 2021, forward. The second, issued February 22, 2023, swept up everything from October 1, 2020, through that date.
What Smith wanted: every call Patel made or received, every text message sent or received, and Patel's home address, mailing address, business address, and email addresses.
All of it. On a man who held no government position and was simply an ally of Donald Trump.
To make sure Patel never found out, Obama-appointed judges signed nondisclosure orders sealing the subpoenas – justified by boilerplate claims of "reasonable grounds."
"The FBI under prior leadership was weaponized in ways the American people are only now beginning to fully grasp," FBI spokesman Ben Williamson said Tuesday.
The Target List Had 14 Republican Lawmakers on It
The new documents don't stop with Patel.
Smith's team drafted a congressional target list naming 14 Republican members of Congress whose toll records they intended to pursue – including Senators Ted Cruz, Marsha Blackburn, Bill Hagerty, Mike Lee, Dan Sullivan, and Lindsey Graham, along with former Representatives Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Mo Brooks, Paul Gosar, and Lee Zeldin, now head of the EPA.
Grassley's team flagged something remarkable about the process: DOJ prosecutors already knew what calls had taken place. They subpoenaed the records anyway.
"The conversations between DOJ prosecutors show they already knew what phone calls took place – yet they subpoenaed members' toll records anyway," Grassley's summary stated.
Smith's own staff had been warned this could violate the Constitution. A May 2023 email shows a Smith attorney consulting DOJ's Public Integrity Section and being told the subpoenas risked running afoul of the Speech and Debate Clause, which protects members of Congress from exactly this kind of targeting.
They issued the subpoenas anyway.
Judge Boasberg Was in the Room
January 2023 AG briefing materials show Smith's team coordinating directly with then-Chief DC District Judge Beryl Howell and now-Chief Judge James Boasberg – both Obama appointees, both now major obstacles to the Trump administration in court.
Boasberg signed most of the nondisclosure orders that kept Smith's congressional surveillance secret. Grassley concluded Boasberg "essentially acted as a rubber stamp" – approving orders without ever establishing that the targets were sitting members of Congress.
"Did Boasberg and others even ask the question?" Grassley said. "Was even a small amount of due diligence done? Boasberg and others won't say."
Senator Ted Cruz called it what it is.
"It is a modern Watergate, trading a break-in at one office for a digital sweep into approximately 100,000 private communicators, more than a dozen senators, and thousands of individuals' lives," Cruz said at Tuesday's hearing.
The Machine Is Still Running
Smith's team knew they were on shaky constitutional ground. They went ahead anyway. And they buried it using nondisclosure orders rubber-stamped by the same judges now blocking Trump's agenda from the bench.
Which raises the question conservatives have been asking for months: why hasn't Patel moved faster and harder?
Smith's team had two years of his calls. His texts. His home address. Every number he dialed. Deep staters inside the FBI knew exactly who Patel talked to, when, and how often – before he ever walked through the director's door. If you wanted to neutralize a man before he could clean house, that's the file you'd want. And they had it. Whether that explains Patel's pace or not, the American people deserve to ask the question out loud.
Sources:
- Shawn Fleetwood, "New Docs: Jack Smith's Arctic Frost Lawfare Against Patel, GOP Was Worse Than Originally Thought," The Federalist, March 24, 2026.
- Jeff Mordock, "Jack Smith Sought Phone Records of Kash Patel Before He Was FBI Chief," The Washington Times, March 24, 2026.
- "Jack Smith Secretly Sought Nearly Two Years Of Kash Patel's Phone Records, Subpoenas Show," The Daily Caller, March 24, 2026.
- "Jack Smith Subpoenaed Records for Over 400 Republican Targets As Part of Arctic Frost," Senate Judiciary Committee, October 29, 2025.
- "Grassley Exposes Jack Smith's Lack of Candor to the Court," Senate Judiciary Committee.
- "Newly Released Records Show Expanded Data Sweep Plans of Jack Smith's Arctic Frost Probe," The Daily Signal, March 24, 2026.
