FBI Director Kash Patel revealed that his phone records were seized by the agency under the Biden administration. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ phone records were also obtained. At the time, both were private citizens, Patel told Reuters.
“It is outrageous and deeply alarming that the previous FBI leadership secretly subpoenaed my own phone records – along with those of now White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles – using flimsy pretexts and burying the entire process in prohibited case files designed to evade all oversight,” he told the outlet.
The records were obtained during former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of President Trump.
FBI officials shared that at least 10 employees have been dismissed as a result of Patel’s targeting.
Several lawmakers were also targeted as part of Smith’s “Arctic Frost” investigation. The Republicans, including Sens. Lindsey Graham (SC), Marsha Blackburn (TN), Josh Hawley (MO), Ron Johnson (WI), Cynthia Lummis (WY), Bill Hagerty (TN), Dan Sullivan (AK), Tommy Tuberville (AL), as well as Rep. Mike Kelly (PA), urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to address the matter.
“As part of Jack Smith’s weaponized witch hunt, the Biden DOJ issued subpoenas to several telecommunications companies in 2023 regarding our cell phone records, gaining access to the time, recipient, duration, and location of calls placed on our devices from January 4, 2021, to January 7, 2021,” the lawmakers wrote to Bondi last year. “We have yet to learn of any legal predicate for the Biden Department of Justice issuing subpoenas to obtain these cell phone records.”
The letter notes that Smith’s actions “trampled on this separation of powers principle that underlies our system of government.”
