In another potentially major win for MAGA Americans and their elected representatives, the GOP Senate included a provision in the bill that ends the shutdown that allows legislators whose phone records are subpoenaed by the spy agencies and Deep State “justice” apparatus to sue, a clear shot back at the DOJ over the Operation Arctic Frost revelations.
As background, Arctic Frost was a DOJ operation that targeted then-former President Donald Trump and his allies, including by illegally accessing the phone records of a number of sitting senators. As Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) revealed in a hearing, “And now we also know that . . . the FBI was weaponized in this ‘Arctic Frost’ investigation that tapped the phones of sitting US Senators and also the Republican Attorneys General Association.”
Judge Boasberg was involved as well, as he allowed the FBI to engage in the illegal process. Such is what Sen. Cruz revealed in a video, saying, “He is not being a judge. He is being a partisan, left-wing activist, and he needs to be removed from office. Biden DOJ issued a subpoena to spy on my phone records. That was a grotesque abuse of power, and Judge Boasberg, a left-wing activist who keeps issuing nationwide injunctions against President Trump, signed an order concluding that I and likely a bunch of other Republican senators were likely to destroy evidence and tamper with witnesses.” The senator added, on that point, “That was an absolute abuse of power.”
In response to that horrid abuse of power, Republicans inserted a provision into the spending package that reopened the government that would require that senators be notified any time that their phone data is subpoenaed, and provides that if they are not alerted to that fact, then they can sue the federal government for up to half a million dollars.
That text of the bill provides, as Newsweek reported, “Any Senator whose Senate data, or the Senate data of whose Senate office, has been acquired, subpoenaed, searched, accessed, or disclosed in violation of this section may bring a civil action against the United States if the violation was committed by an officer, employee, or agent of the United States or of any Federal department or agency.”
That’s not all. In addition to allowing them to sue for future such abuses of power by the federal Deep State apparatus and the assorted collection of spies, judges, and bureaucrats that compose it, the bill has “limited retroactive applicability,” allowing them to sue for any failed disclosure of phone record subpoenas that has occurred since January 1, 2022.
Sen. Schmitt, announcing the provision in a post on X, said, “Last night—while I presided—the Senate delivered both a funding bill and a private right of action to combat Jack Smith’s lawlessness. We are going to drag Arctic Frost from the court of public opinion to the highest courts in our land.”
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He added, “At the very end of that appropriations bill is Section 213. This provision does many things to improve 2 U.S.C. § 6628: • It mandates data disclosures • It updates the notification requirements • It creates a Private Right of Action. This last one is the most important.” He then explained why, saying, “Just a few weeks ago, when I called for the impeachment of rogue Judge Boasberg, this same provision—2 U.S.C. § 6628—was the key. Arctic Frost broke the law. However, there was no statutory cause of action or criminal penalty attached—only impeachment.”
He further noted, “this new cause of action will allow any Senator whose data was violated under 2 U.S.C. § 6628 to sue and drag Jack Smith and his cronies into federal court.” He then said, “These claims can be brought against retroactive violations of 2 U.S.C. § 6628, so long as they occurred after January 1, 2022. This encompasses the entire Arctic Frost subpoena frenzy pursued by Jack Smith and rubber-stamped by Judge Boasberg.”
Watch Sen. Cruz’s statement calling for the impeachment of Judge Boasberg here:
Jack Smith image credit: By United States Department of Justice – This file has been extracted from another file, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=132849708