On Monday, Fox News published a report claiming that former Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith allegedly surveilled multiple Republican members of Congress as part of his investigation into then-former President Donald Trump. But one veteran journalist on Capitol Hill is arguing Smith had good reason to do so.
According to Fox's reporting, Smith's team was monitoring the phone activity of Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) along with Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.). The lawmakers were part of the Operation: Arctic Frost investigation pertaining to the January 6, 2021 siege of the U.S. Capitol and the "fake elector" scheme that Republicans allegedly perpetrated to flip election results in several key swing states.
"This document shows the Biden FBI spied on 8 of my Republican Senate colleagues during its Arctic Frost investigation into 'election conspiracy,'" wrote Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.) Arctic Frost later became Jack Smith's elector case against Trump."
"BIDEN FBI WEAPONIZATION = WORSE THAN WATERGATE," Grassley added.
But Capitol Hill journalist Jamie Dupree, who has been covering Congress for roughly four decades, justified Smith's actions by pointing to several documented instances of Rep. Kelly being personally handed envelopes of fake elector documents on January 5, 2021. Dupree pointed to surveillance video House Republicans released showing Trump aides putting the envelopes in Kelly's hands.
"Let's start with the top name on this GOP list. Why would the FBI have tracked Rep. Mike Kelly R-PA about Jan. 6? Because his office was involved in Trump's fake electors effort to overturn Joe Biden's victory," Dupree wrote.
"The Jan. 6 tapes also have video of an aide to Rep. Mike Kelly R-PA trying to get those same fake elector documents to Sen. Ron Johnson R-WI on Jan. 6 - with a handoff right in front of the U.S. Supreme Court," he wrote in a separate post.
Dupree documented on his Substack how Wisconsin Republican Party attorney Jim Troupis texted Johnson at 11:36 AM on the day of the insurrection: "We need to get a document on the Wisconsin electors to you for the VP immediately," referring to then-Vice President Mike Pence. Roughly an hour later, Johnson's chief of staff, Sean Riley, texted Pence legislative aide Chris Hodgson, referencing the fake elector documents.
"Johnson needs to hand something to VPOTUS please advise," Riley wrote.
When Hodgson asked what Johnson wanted to give to Pence, Riley told him it was the "alternate slate of electors for MI and WI."
"Do not give that to him," Hodgson wrote.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino briefed the senators whose phones were tracked by Smith's team on Monday afternoon, according to Fox. Bongino lamented to Fox that the FBI was "weaponized to track the private communications of U.S. lawmakers for political purposes."
Click here to read Fox's report, and click here to read Dupree's Substack.