FBI Director Kash Patel said Tuesday the FBI fired agents and dismantled the unit responsible for spying on eight Republican senators during the FBI’s sweeping anti-Trump investigation.
Patel announced the accountability measures one day after Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) released a document showing the FBI Washington Field Office analyzed phone records and communications of eight GOP senators and Representative Mike Kelly (R., Pa.).
“They tracked the communications of GOP Senators. They weaponized law enforcement against the American people. That era is over. We fired those who acted unethically, dismantled the corrupt CR-15 squad, and launched an investigation. Transparency and accountability aren’t slogans, they’re promises kept,” Patel said on X.
He reiterated those promises in other social media posts about the FBI record. During an oversight hearing on Tuesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi similarly promised to get to the bottom of the FBI’s activities.
“We will be looking at all aspects of this, and I have talked to Director Patel at length about this,” Bondi said.
Patel did not provide the names of who the FBI fired. The “C-15 squad” was the FBI Washington Field Office’s public corruption unit.
The GOP senators impacted were Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Josh Hawley (Mo.), Dan Sullivan (Alaska), Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), Bill Hagerty (Tenn.), Tommy Tuberville (Ala.), Ron Johnson (Wisc.), and Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.), the document revealed.
The FBI’s tracking of eight GOP senators was part of its “Arctic Frost” investigation into President Donald Trump’s role in the January 6th, 2021, Capitol riot. It specifically focused on the senators’s phone records from January 4-7th, 2021. Several of the lawmakers implicated supported Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 election and the actions he took to contest the election results.
Grassley previously released documents showing the “Arctic Frost” investigation encompassed 92 GOP organizations and GOP-linked individuals, including the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA. The Republican National Committee, Republican Attorneys General Association, and numerous Trump-affiliated operatives were ensnared in the “Arctic Frost” investigation.
Republican senators have called for committee investigations and prosecutions of all those involved with the “Arctic Frost” monitoring.
“I have grave concerns about a new report showing that the Biden-era FBI spied on Republican senators – and I fully support Senate committees getting to the bottom of this outrageous abuse of power and weaponization of the government,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) said Monday.
Grassley called the FBI’s behavior “arguably worse than Watergate” and urged Bondi and Patel to pursue accountability against those who carried it out. He has conducted extensive oversight of the FBI under the Biden administration and worked with Patel to declassify records related to the FBI’s scandals during Biden’s presidency.
Trump’s involvement in the January 6th riot formed the basis of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Washington, D.C., criminal prosecution of Trump. Anti-Trump FBI Agent Timothy Thibault initiated the investigation and it morphed into Smith’s case upon his appointment to the special prosecutor role in November 2022. Smith’s case against Trump never made to trial.
Instead, it was bogged down by litigation that culminated in the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision giving the president immunity for official acts. Smith closed his cases against Trump and resigned shortly after Trump won the 2024 election.
“Deranged Jack Smith got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. A real sleazebag!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Trump and other Republican lawmakers have frequently accused Smith of weaponizing the legal system against Trump with the purpose of hindering his 2024 presidential campaign.