When news broke in 2025 that the Biden-era FBI spied on eight Republican senators’ personal cell phone information, all hell should have broken loose. Instead, in classic corporate media fashion, the bombshell dubbed “100 times worse than Watergate” by Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., was subject to a blackout by the biggest publications.
As new records released by U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley on Tuesday reveal, it was not an “isolated incident” that could be swept under the rug forever. “Arctic Frost” was the culmination of years of political weaponization against President Donald Trump, his allies, and his voters.
Another one of those manufactured investigations came in 2021 when the FBI covertly obtained phone toll records of several GOP members of Congress.
The preliminary investigation dubbed “Operation Rampart Twelve” was initiated on January 22, 2021 by the FBI based on rumors from Democrat Rep. Mikie Sherrill’s Facebook live that Republican representatives such as Lauren Boebert and Paul Gosar led so-called “reconnaissance” tours in advance of the January 6 Capitol chaos. As Federalist White House Correspondent Breccan Thies explained, “the corporate media trumpeted Sherrill’s allegations at the time, and she led a group of more than 30 House Democrats in sending a letter to the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms demanding information about Jan. 5 visitors.”
Department of Justice prosecutors voiced concerns over text that the allegations lacked evidence and legal justification, but the FBI continued anyway.
Operation Rampart Twelve was set to expire in July 2021, but career intelligence officials including the provably partisan FBI Washington Field Office’s then-assistant special agent in charge Timothy Thibault urged for an extension. Despite a lack of evidence to continue, the FBI kept the probe open until January 27, 2022. As Grassley noted during his time at the April 21 Judiciary subcommittee hearing, the shoddy investigation appeared “to be a predecessor case to Arctic Frost.”
Some accountability for Arctic Frost came, albeit years later. Yet, at least one of the bureaucrats who led the targeting scheme that “formed the basis of Jack Smith’s elector case against President Donald Trump” remains employed at the DOJ to this day, despite being demoted.
Arctic Frost and lawfare like it, in Grassley’s words, can’t simply “be dismissed as partisan noise or bureaucratic excess.” Especially because it wasn’t an one-off. It’s deep rot.
If the Biden administration was defined by one thing, it was its consistent and careful targeting of Democrats’ political enemies. No president, no GOP member of Congress, no Christian, no parent, and no pro-lifer was safe from the wrath of weaponization.
Jordan Boyd is an award-winning staff writer at The Federalist and producer of “The Federalist Radio Hour.” Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on X @jordanboydtx.
