Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released a Justice Department memo from April 2022 revealing that former Attorney General Merrick Garland, former Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and former FBI Director Christopher Wray all gave their stamp of approval for an investigation by the bureau into alleged action taken by associates of the Trump campaign to “obstruct’ the certification of the 2020 election.
The memo, four pages in length, was posted by Grassley on his X account. He explained that the document proves top officials in the Biden administration had it out for President Donald Trump, which “unleashed unchecked government power at the highest levels.” He then referred to the investigation as “Arctic Frost.”
“My oversight will continue,” the senator added in the post. The memo, signed by all three of the individuals named above, gave the FBI’s Washington Field Office to start a “Sensitive Investigative Matter.” It goes on to provide details about requests made by the bureau to look into whether individuals with connections to Trump’s 2020 campaign worked together to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the Electoral College on the now infamous Jan. 6, 2021, the day of the so-called “Capitol riot.”
“Following the 2020 Presidential and Vice Presidential election, in an apparent effort to obstruct Congress’s certification of Electoral College, fraudulent certificates of electors’ votes were submitted to the Archivist of the United States, purporting to represent the actual elector votes from the states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin,” the executive summary says, according to Fox News.
“Because this investigation involves a SIM as set forth in the Department of Justice memorandum dated February 5, 2020, entitled ‘Additional Requirements for Opening of Certain Sensitive Investigations’ (DOJ Memo), your authorization is required before WFO may initiate this full investigation,” the document continues.
Monaco included an encouragement at the bottom of the document urging Garland to approve the investigation. She included her initials and dated it “4/5/22,” which is the same day Garland signed off on the probe.
The investigation’s authorization came a whole year after the incident at the Capitol building and a few months before special counsel Jack Smith was brought in to oversee related probes. Smith subpoenaed a number of phone records from a total of eight Republican senators and a single House member for a four-day period, dating from Jan. 4 to Jan. 7, 2021.
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Smith wanted the records combed through to examine their phone activity around the time the riot took place. The subpoenas were directed to collect a list of numbers, dates, and conversation lengths. Content was left out.
On Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) sat down for a conversation with Fox News host Sean Hannity, revealing he recently found out that Smith tried to subpoena his toll records, but AT&T decided not to play ball. The former special counsel tried to defend his actions by saying the subpoenas were “entirely proper” and were narrowly focused on specific sets of information. He then claimed the data was collected to help his investigation into alleged efforts by Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
A number of Republicans have compared Arctic Frost to the Watergate scandal, saying they were spied on by the previous administration, which seemingly had an ax to grind against anyone who dare question the official narrative concerning the 2020 election. In response to the accusations, Smith’s legal team has persisted in claiming the subpoenas were totally normal, quipping that public officials aren’t protected from being investigated.
Smith’s lawyers also denied accusations from FBI Director Kash Patel that the subpoenas were done in the shadows and kept hidden, pointing out that requests were made in a footnote of Smith’s last report and shared with Trump’s legal representatives during the discovery phase.
Featured image credit: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons