The Biden administrations Justice Department appears to have cast a far wider surveillance net over its political opponents than previously disclosed, newly released Senate records indicate.
According to The Daily Signal, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, on Tuesday released internal documents detailing Operation Rampart Twelve, a Biden-era FBI investigation that swept up the phone data of Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Eric Schmitt of Missouri, in connection with the events of Jan. 6, 2021. The records show the FBI secretly obtained members phone toll records, while text messages from Justice Department prosecutors raised doubts about whether the legal standards for collecting such information had been met.
This operation mirrors the controversial Operation Arctic Frost, in which the FBI collected phone data from Republican members of Congress while probing President Donald Trumps challenge to the 2020 election results. Rampart Twelve appears to be a predecessor case to Arctic Frost, Grassley told colleagues during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, underscoring what conservatives see as a pattern of partisan law enforcement under President Joe Biden.
The FBI opened Operation Rampart Twelve on Jan. 22, 2021, but shut it down a year later after failing to uncover credible evidence to sustain the case. Grassley further disclosed that records show the Biden White House coordinated with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis office during her prosecution of Trump, which produced state conspiracy charges against the President and his allies.
The Rampart Twelve probe sought to determine whether Republican House members led reconnaissance tours in advance of Jan. 6, Grassley said, targeting data from Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs of Arizona, and Mo Brooks of Alabama. But what youll find in the available records is that the evidence to support the investigation didnt exist, Grassley said, highlighting what many on the right view as an abuse of federal power for political ends.
On X, Gosar charged that Bidens FBI didnt make a mistake; they knowingly pushed baseless claims to justify a partisan hit job targeting GOP members of Congress. Grassley also pointed to text messages between two partisan prosecutors who later joined Jack Smiths team that questioned the legal basis for gathering the data, yet the FBI moved forward regardless, raising fresh concerns about unchecked prosecutorial power and the weaponization of federal law enforcement against conservatives.
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