Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation didn't just target Donald Trump. According to a report released September 23 by the House Judiciary Committee, the probe — internally code-named "Arctic Frost" — obtained phone toll records for 17 Republican members of Congress and accessed text messages belonging to 44 members. In total, more than 160 Republicans were swept into the surveillance dragnet.
The committee's chairman, Jim Jordan, says the Biden-Harris Department of Justice "ran roughshod over key constitutional protections to spy on Republican Members."
That's not editorial spin. It's a direct quote from the report, which cites Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution — the Speech or Debate Clause — as the specific protection the DOJ violated. That clause exists for one reason: to prevent the executive branch from using law enforcement power to intimidate or surveil the legislative branch. The Founders wrote it because they'd seen kings do exactly what this report describes.
"Contemporaneous documents and testimony to the Committee reveal a deliberate assault by the Biden-Harris DOJ on fundamental separation of powers," the report states. The word "deliberate" is doing real work in that sentence. This wasn't a clerical error or an overly broad subpoena that accidentally scooped up congressional communications. The report alleges the DOJ knew whose records it was pulling.
The names on the list read like a roster of Trump's closest allies. Former White House adviser Steve Bannon. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Former Trump attorney John Eastman. Former Trump DOJ official Jeffrey Clark. Representative Scott Perry. Former Representative Mark Meadows, who served as Trump's Chief of Staff. Every one of them had their communications accessed by Smith's team in the course of investigating January 6, 2021 and the classified documents case that followed the August 2022 FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago.
Smith was appointed Special Counsel in November 2022. When asked under oath whether his team accessed the actual content of congressional members' messages, Smith testified "no" — claiming they only obtained metadata like call times and durations. The House report suggests the distinction between metadata and content is thinner than Smith let on, particularly given that text messages for 44 members were accessed.
The probe didn't operate in a vacuum. The report connects Arctic Frost to a pattern of FBI investigative conduct that includes code names like Crossfire Hurricane, Round River, and Plasmic Echo — each one a chapter in the bureau's post-2016 history of investigations that happened to target the same political movement.
Retired Special Agent Brian Burnett of the DOJ Office of Inspector General, who left the agency in 2024, provided testimony to the committee. Initial FBI documents related to the investigation were made public in 2025, but the full scope of congressional surveillance only emerged with this week's report.
Former Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith and oversaw the DOJ throughout the investigation. The report finds his department "disregarded the separation of powers to spy on their political opposition." Garland spent his confirmation hearing promising to depoliticize the Justice Department. The committee's 2026 findings describe the opposite.
Smith resigned after Trump's 2024 election victory. No charges were sustained. The investigations collapsed. The constitutional violations, according to this report, did not.
Seventeen members' phone records. Forty-four members' texts. More than 160 Republicans surveilled. One special counsel who said "no" under oath — and a report that says the records tell a different story.
