❓WHAT HAPPENED: Whistleblower revelations regarding the Biden-Harris era Federal Bureau of Investigation’s sweeping Arctic Frost investigation detail how the Biden Justice Department’s weaponized probe evolved from a public corruption unit into a sprawling partisan interference campaign.

👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Former Attorney General Merrick Garland, former Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray, Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith, former FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Timothy Thibault, United States District Court for the District of Columbia judges James Boasberg and Beryl Howell, President Donald J. Trump, Republican lawmakers, over 430 Republican-aligned organizatsions and leaders, media companies, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

📍WHEN & WHERE: The Arctic Frost probe began in April 2022, with Jack Smith taking over in November 2022 and expanding the investigation in 2023. Revelations regarding Arctic Frost’s unprecedented scope and weaponization were revealed in October 2025.

🎯IMPACT: While the full extent of Smith’s aims with Arctic Frost is likely only known to him and his investigatory team, the latest revelations certainly imply that the Biden DOJ’s special counsel intended to oversee a long-term partisan interference operation that would have—in terms of public scandal—dwarfed the Watergate break-in under the late President Richard Nixon.

In April 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) launched a sweeping investigation into an alleged false electors scheme following the 2020 presidential election. Code-named “Arctic Frost,” the investigation—under the guise of probing public corruption—quickly expanded, becoming the impetus for the former Biden Justice Department’s lawfare efforts against President Donald J. Trump. However, recent disclosures made by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) have revealed that Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith subsumed Arctic Frost’s investigative brief to launch an unprecedented partisan interference campaign against hundreds of Republican lawmakers, political leaders, political action committees (PACs), and activist groups.

IN THE BEGINNING

The FBI’s Arctic Frost investigation was quietly opened in the Spring of 2022, after receiving approval from former Attorney General Merrick Garland, former Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and former FBI Director Christopher Wray. Initially, the investigation was meant to target an alleged false electors scheme in the name of combating public corruption.

FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Timothy Thibault oversaw the investigation. Sen. Grassley contends that whistleblower statements indicate Thibault almost immediately sought to weaponize Arctic Frost, pushing its scope to target President Trump and other Republican lawmakers.

“Whistleblower disclosures to my office revealed how Thibault bent FBI rules and, in so doing, weaponized the federal government to take down a political opponent,” Grassley states, adding: “The Office of Special Counsel confirmed Thibault also broke the law; the Hatch Act prohibits political activity among federal employees while on duty.”

In August 2022, Thibault was forced to resign from the FBI over his handling of a separate probe into allegations Hunter Biden traded on access to his father, then-President Joe Biden. Thibault was accused of working to discredit allegations against Hunter instead of fulfilling investigatory duties.

ENTER JACK SMITH

Despite the departure of Thibault, the Arctic Frost investigation remained open, and in November 2022, it became a key vehicle for newly appointed Biden DOJ special counsel Jack Smith‘s January 6 investigation of President Trump. Under Smith—a notoriously over-aggressive and highly partisan prosecutor—Arctic Frost mutated into an investigatory tool aimed at connecting Trump and several Republican lawmakers to the January 6 Capitol riots, with the end goal being to secure convictions that would effectively bar Trump and his congressional allies from ever again holding office.

In early October of this year, Sen. Grassley released whistleblower evidence that Smith—under the auspices of Arctic Frost—tracked the private communications and phone records of at least twelve Republican Senators. The FBI subsequently confirmed the authenticity of the whistleblower documents.

The targets included Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), and Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA). An FBI special agent on Smith’s team conducted preliminary toll analysis on the lawmakers’ phone records, revealing call locations and numbers dialed. The calls were reportedly related to the certification of the 2020 election.

While allegations of the Biden DOJ spying on Republican lawmakers immediately raised serious ethical concerns regarding the scope and weaponization of Arctic Frost under Smith, another—more disturbing—shoe was about to drop.

THE BIDEN GOVERNMENT’S ‘WATERGATE’

Earlier this week, Sen. Grassley published a new tranche of whistleblower documents revealing the third life of the Arctic Frost probe. Beyond just President Trump and a number of Republican senators, Smith weaponized Arctic Frost to issue 197 subpoenas targeting Republican-aligned groups and individuals.  

According to the documents, by mid-2023, Smith—without any pushback from the Biden DOJ—sought records and communications involving over 430 individuals and organizations, including prominent conservative entities such as the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA (TPUSA) and the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA). The investigation also involved a subpoena related to communications with media companies like CBS, Fox News, Newsmax, and Sinclair.

Notably, non-disclosure orders regarding Smith’s Arctic Frost targets were signed in 2023 by United States District Court for the District of Columbia judges James Boasberg and Beryl Howell. Both Boasberg and Howell have been at the center of recent judicial interference efforts against President Trump’s immigration enforcement actions and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative.

Under the guise of investigating the alleged involvement of President Trump and several Republican lawmakers in January 6, Smith appears to have, in reality, laid the groundwork for an unprecedented, weaponized, and partisan criminal probe aimed at crippling the Republican Party. Financial institutions and political vendors for Trump-aligned PACs were targeted with subpoenas, suggesting that Smith sought to establish monetary links between hundreds of consulting firms, advisors, and nonprofits that he could subsequently prosecute—presumably under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act—if he had secured a conviction against Trump.

The aggressive scale and overreach are reminiscent of past prosecutions overseen by Smith. One of Smith’s most high-profile cases before he indicted President Trump was a corruption case against former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell (R), which ended with the DOJ declining to retry McDonnell after the Supreme Court threw out the conviction based on the trial court’s acceptance of Smith’s legal chicanery.

While the full extent of Smith’s aims is likely known only to him and his investigatory team, the latest revelations certainly imply that the Biden DOJ’s special counsel intended to oversee a long-term partisan interference operation that would have—in terms of public scandal—dwarfed the Watergate break-in under the late President Richard Nixon in the early 1970s.

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