Article III Project senior counsel Will Chamberlain provided testimony on March 24, 2026, during a hearing of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights, where he agreed with Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) that the Biden administration’s FBI monitoring of Susie Wiles’ discussions with her attorney is a far worse abuse of power than the infamous Watergate scandal.
During the hearing, Lee made a reference to a record that was released by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley earlier in the day, saying, “The FBI designated this as a prohibited file to prevent anyone from finding out about.” Chamberlain responded, “That seems to be correct.”
Lee continued with his line of questioning. “Okay, so your testimony focuses, among other things, on an FBI recording of a 2023 phone call between Susie Wiles, who was, at the time, managing President Trump’s presidential campaign, and her lawyer. Now, according to the FBI, the lawyer was aware of the recording. But isn’t it true that the lawyer denied that he had ever consented to that arrangement?” the senator asked.
According to Just The News, Chamberlain replied, “That’s true. That was widely reported.” Lee followed up by asking if the wiretap on Wiles was illegal. “And if, in fact, the lawyer did not consent, your testimony today is that this would have been and was an illegal wiretap by the FBI in the absence of her lawyer’s consent with the FBI?”
“That’s correct,” Chamberlain said. Lee then asked Chamberlain if it was okay for a sitting president to ask the FBI to spy on his political opponent for him. “Okay, so they did something they weren’t supposed to do, then they designated it as a prohibited file to cover it up. Now, in general, should the president be able to direct the FBI to spy on the campaign of his political opponent?”
“Absolutely not,” Chamberlain said without hesitation. Lee then asked him, “And isn’t listening to a private conversation between a presidential campaign manager and her lawyer in many ways much more serious as an abuse of government power than an attempted wiretap of the DNC headquarters in Watergate?” Chamberlain affirmed Lee’s conclusion and expounded on it.
“Correct, because there’s two, you know, interests being invaded. First, it’s just the wiretap generally. But then it’s doubly invasive, because it’s supposed to be a privileged conversation,” Chamberlain remarked. “A privileged conversation which, regardless of who is involved in it, is supposed to be privileged, and that takes on additional flavor and additional degrees of seriousness when that person happens to be a client represented by a lawyer who happens to be managing the presidential campaign of the then-incumbent president’s lead and exclusive challenger, effectively,” Lee responded.
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) questioned Margot Cleveland of The Federalist during the hearing, focusing on the scope of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation. The Texas Republican asked Cleveland about subpoenaing toll records for members of Congress. Cleveland then said that this caused a number of Speech and Debate Clause issues.
In fact, when Smith attempted to force AT&T to hand over Cruz’s records, the company said no, stating that doing so would be a violation of the Constitution. Smith then backed off and didn’t bother to try enforcing it in court. Cleveland then made it clear that Smith was well aware of what he was doing and that it violated constitutional law.
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video