WASHINGTON — Former special counsel Jack Smith got his hands on at least 10 Republican lawmakers’ call logs — and even sought the phone records for one of their congressional offices, according to explosive records on the FBI’s Arctic Frost probe released this week by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
One of those records is a May 2023 grand jury subpoena — which until now had been kept hidden by a nondisclosure order issued by Chief DC US District Court Judge James Boasberg — that reveals the GOP elected officials’ addresses, inbound/outbound call and text records, and payment information were handed over to Smith’s team.
The lawmakers — Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) — all used Verizon as their carrier.
“Verizon willfully handed over my call logs to the Biden FBI without hesitation, empowering Jack Smith’s witch hunt targeting Republicans for political gain,” Blackburn told The Post in a statement.
“The Special Counsel and DOJ at the time decided who to target,” a Verizon spokesman said in a statement. “A court ordered Verizon not to tell anyone about that. We had no choice but to comply with the court order. So we did.
“We’re now actively working with members of Congress to furnish all related documents pertaining to this issue,” the rep added. “That process is underway. Moving forward, we are implementing a rigorous new protocol for subpoenas involving congressional members, requiring escalation to a senior Verizon leader prior to anything being handed over.”
A phone in Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) Washington, DC office was one of the lines subpoenaed by Smith via Verizon, but a source with direct knowledge of the investigation told The Post it “had no records that were responsive to what the subpoena was requesting.”
While Verizon complied with the grand jury subpoena, a similar request from Smith’s office to AT&T was denied.
“In May 2023, Special Counsel Smith sent AT&T a grand jury subpoena that included a request for phone records associated with AT&T accounts for two other members of Congress,” wrote the phone carrier’s associate general counsel, David Chorzempa, in an Oct. 24 letter to Grassley.
“However, when AT&T raised questions with the Special Counsel Smith’s office concerning the legal basis for seeking records of members of Congress, the Special Counsel did not pursue the subpoena further, and no records were produced,” Chorzempa said.
“It turns out that activist Judge Boasberg also ordered Verizon not to inform me of the subpoena, falsely claiming I might destroy so-called evidence,” Blackburn said.
“There was no criminal predicate, no justification, and no excuse for Verizon aiding Jack Smith’s spying operation, especially when AT&T refused to comply under the same circumstances.”
Grassley has since produced the subpoena letter and its attachments, along with a letter from Verizon, in describing Smith’s efforts as a “fishing expedition” for Arctic Frost, “the vehicle by which FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors could improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus.”
Boasberg’s order — which cited “reasonable grounds to believe that such disclosure will result in destruction of or tampering with evidence, intimidation of potential witnesses and serious jeopardy to the investigation” — has since led to calls from Republicans in Congress for his impeachment.
On Wednesday, Blackburn, Cruz and other GOPers accused Boasberg — who locked horns with the Trump administration in March over deportations of alleged gang members to El Salvador — of abusing his power.
Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) has also introduced articles of impeachment against the DC jurist, which currently has 22 Republican co-sponsors, for a separate order related to Trump’s mass deportations.
Asked whether the House Judiciary Committee would consider the articles, a rep for panel chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told The Post: “Everything is on the table.”
In the Oct. 24 letter to Grassley, a Verizon executive noted that policies around law enforcement demands for phone records shifted this year and will now be “escalated to Verizon’s legal department and a senior leader(s) empowered to intervene before records are produced” and notify Congress “as needed to identify” whether current members’ records are involved.
“Note that Verizon often does not independently know which personal or campaign accounts or lines are associated with Senate members,” said Robert Fisher, Verizon’s senior vice president of Federal Government Relations & Public Affairs. “This was the case for multiple numbers listed on the May 25, 2023, subpoena.”
Fisher also disclosed: “The subpoena we received was facially valid, and we produced information to law enforcement as a result.”
The letter also noted the carrier will now proactively inform senators after a non-disclosure order expires.
Cruz’s cell phone was one of the two AT&T accounts targeted. The other was not disclosed by the carrier, the source said. Boasberg signed a non-disclosure order accompanying that subpoena as well.
“Merrick Garland was a fundamentally corrupt attorney general. Jack Smith was a fundamentally corrupt prosecutor. This was a political enemies list from the beginning,” Cruz told reporters on Capitol Hill press conference Wednesday, holding up a copy of Boasberg’s court order related to his phone.
The non-disclosure orders for both Verizon and AT&T expired May 25, 2024, but were not unearthed until the Republican senators sought answers from the carriers.
Grassley in the press conference announced that federal whistleblowers provided his office with a total of 197 subpoenas issued by Smith as part of the Arctic Frost investigation, which swept up an astounding 430 Republican-aligned groups and individuals.
“The subpoenas requested records and communications related to over 430 individual and organizations — all of them appear to be aimed at Republicans,” the 92-year-old said, referencing groups like the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA and the Republican Attorneys General Association.
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), who also called for Boasberg’s impeachment Wednesday, said the disclosures should prompt “Watergate-style hearings for months.”
“And consequences have to follow: resignations, firings, criminal prosecutions,” Schmitt added.
Smith resigned before Trump took office and members of his team whose signatures were on the grand jury subpoenas, including former senior assistant special counsel Molly Gaston, were fired in January,
