Grassley releases records showing FBI obtained Trump, Pence cellphones for investigation

By 
 March 15, 2025

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) revealed on Friday that the FBI had allegedly obtained the cell phones of President Donald Trump and then-Vice President Mike Pence in 2022 in an attempt to pin the false elector case on Trump.

The FBI petitioned to obtain the phones in April 2022, and they were obtained in May, information legally obtained from whistleblowers said.

Grassley and Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI) said the bureau used information from the phones as part of Operation Arctic Frost, which led to the Jack Smith false elector case against Trump.

"Sunshine is the best disinfectant"

“Sunshine is the best disinfectant,” the chairmen wrote in a letter to DOJ head Pam Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel. “The American people deserve to know the complete extent of the corruption within the DOJ and FBI that led to the investigation into President Trump."

"We are making this information public for purposes of public accountability and to provide specific examples of past behavior at your institutions that must not be repeated," they continued. "Quite simply, the public has a right to know what happened in Arctic Frost and, based on what we’ve exposed to date, the American public deserves better from its law enforcement agencies."

The senators want Patel to release all the records related to Arctic Frost by March 27 as they investigate the trajectory and scope of the operation.

The Senate Judiciary Committee website also said that Arctic Frost was initially proposed by Timothy Thibault, a former FBI agent forced to retire after his anti-Trump bias was exposed.

At the DOJ, Richard Pilger greenlit the investigation. He also has a "troubling" record of bias, the site said.

Call for "professionalism"

"It is important that every individual at your agencies maintains the highest level of professionalism, and does not allow political bias to motivate or guide their investigative work," Grassley cautioned Bondi and Patel.

It's good that Republicans have realized somewhere in between 2016 and now that holding elected office isn't enough.

The deep state is full of unelected officials like Thibault, Pilger, and Smith who have their own agenda and have been pretty bold about pursuing it whether their preferred political party is in power or not.

The way the FBI and DOJ was weaponized against Trump is nothing less than corruption, and it must be rooted out and destroyed by the current administration if any level of fairness is to be present in the future.

Grassley and Johnson know how important this is.

It seems like Patel and Bondi do also.

" A free people [claim] their rights, as derived from the laws of nature."
Thomas Jefferson