Jack Smith’s January 6 case against President Donald Trump may not have gained traction without behind-the-scenes assistance from the Biden White House, according to a new letter from two Republican senators. Smith, the former special counsel and longtime Justice Department prosecutor, has consistently portrayed himself as a neutral enforcer of the law, free from political bias. But according to a letter sent this week by Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, Smith allegedly received support from President Joe Biden’s official White House counsel—a move the senators say raises serious concerns about the impartiality of the prosecution.
According to the letter, it was the White House Counsel’s Office that secured the cell phone records of President Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence, then handed them over to Jack Smith as part of “Arctic Frost,” his early-stage investigation into the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots. Whistleblowers connected to the probe told the senators that Smith, along with other FBI officials allegedly hostile to Trump, were directly involved in the data exchange. Sens. Johnson and Grassley called on Patel and Bondi to fully comply with their requests for additional information.
“Overall, these newly disclosed emails show the extensive collaboration between and among select FBI agents from the Washington Field Office and prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office – Washington D.C. to plan, approve and execute Arctic Frost,” Grassley and Johnson wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Just The News.
“The emails also provide further support that ASAC Thibault played a central role in advancing its approval to a full field criminal investigation when other agents had concerns the supporting evidence only allowed for a preliminary investigation,” they wrote. “Lastly, the emails illustrate the Biden White House’s personal involvement in providing former President Trump and former Vice President Pence’s phones to the FBI at their request when neither of them was a subject of the investigation at that point in time.”
Sens. Grassley and Johnson—the latter serving as chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations—revealed they had received whistleblower emails suggesting that U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Chief John Crabb contacted then-Deputy White House Counsel Jonathan Su on May 2, 2022. The email, according to the senators, also copied Timothy Thibault, the Assistant Special Agent in Charge at the time.
“Jonathan, Would you please coordinate with Tim Thibault (who’s copied on this email) about picking up the telephones,” Crabb wrote. “Thanks John. Tim, it is good to meet you, and please let me know what works for you in terms of timing the next couple days,” Su replied. Two days later, the FBI collected the government-issued phones of Trump and Pence from Biden officials. This happened even though Trump was not yet a target of the Arctic Frost probe.
“In order to conduct our constitutional oversight responsibilities, and to determine who later added former President Trump as a criminal subject to the case, we reiterate our request for your offices to produce all DOJ and FBI records in the Arctic Frost investigation,” the lawmakers wrote while asking for all pertinent documents to be turned over by April 21st.
