By Peter AitkenShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberHouse Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan of Ohio, a Republican, is seeking information from major banks as he continues to probe whether special counsel Jack Smith overreached in his investigations into President Donald Trump.
Newsweek reached out to Jordan's office by email on Friday afternoon for comment.
Why It Matters
The Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee has said that cellphones belonging to Republican lawmakers were targeted as part of the Artic Frost probe during the Biden administration, which investigated whether Trump or his allies broke the law in an alleged effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The FBI fired multiple employees and dismantled the public corruption unit following the revelation, with FBI Director Kash Patel announcing in a post on X that the investigation "tracked the communications of GOP Senators."
Jack Smith, who led the Artic Frost probe, used information gathered from the investigation to bring charges against Donald Trump, but the cases against Trump went away after he won the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Smith has defended his work and denounced what he calls growing politicization within the Department of Justice (DOJ).
...What To Know
Jordan, who claimed he was one of the Republicans targeted in the phone data sweep, sent out a letter to major banks requesting any communications and materials related to Smith's investigations.
The letter went out to Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley, among others. Jordan requested that they turn over any documents relating to requests for financial data from federal law enforcement officials, according to Politico.
“During the Biden-Harris Administration, the Department of Justice subpoenaed financial institutions … for financial records of private customer data in its politicized investigations into President Trump,” Jordan wrote in the letter, according to Politico. “We write to request relevant materials in [your] possession.”
Jordan reacted to the discovery that the DOJ subpoenaed Verizon for his phone records during an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, saying: "It’s always worse than we thought. We know they spied on President Trump, then we learned it's senators and the speaker of the House. Then we learn that they spied on me for 2 1/2 years.”
He also suggested that he may bring in former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to find out what he knew of the investigation and may have authorized, saying it remains to be seen who signed off on the Arctic Frost probe.
What Is the Arctic Frost Investigation?
The Senate Judiciary Committee has found that the FBI accessed data on Republican lawmakers’ phone usage from January 4 to January 7, 2021, the dates surrounding and including the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Arctic Frost formed the basis of Smith’s inquiry into 2020 election interference, which led to a federal indictment of Trump in August 2023, though charges were dropped following his 2024 presidential election victory.
What Happens Next
Jordan has previously asked Smith to sit for a transcribed interview about his investigations, who countered by requesting that the interview occur in a public forum and only after he has the opportunity to view his records from the DOJ, but an agreement has yet to be reached.
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