Analysis by WorldTribune Staff, March 19, 2025 Real World News
When it came to investigating Donald J. Trump the Federal Bureau of Investigation demonstrated relentless diligence as further demonstrated by the release of new documentation.
First there was Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI's Russiagate investigation which then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham dubbed in 2021 “one of the most incompetent and corrupt investigations in the history of the FBI and DOJ."
Then came "Arctic Frost".
That investigation kicked off in 2022, when the Biden-Harris White House provided the FBI with cellphones that had belonged to President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
GOP Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson on Friday released a series of emails showing the early development of Arctic Frost, which would eventually become special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents and election interference cases aimed at derailing Trump's comeback.
“The new records we are making public point to an aggressive investigation run by anti-Trump agents and prosecutors intent on using every resource available to pursue Trump and his supporters,” said Grassley, Iowa Republican, and Johnson, Wisconsin Republican.
The FBI got the Trump and Pence phones from the Biden White House, the senators said. The bureau, then led by Director Christopher Wray, followed up by drafting search warrants to be able to look at the data on the phones.
More than a dozen FBI field offices were ordered to help in the investigation in which the FBI had prepared dozens of subpoenas and planned to interviews dozens of Trump associates.
Johnson and Grassley said that "anti-Trump" FBI Agent Timothy Thibault was at the center of Arctic Frost.
The senators said Thibault broke FBI protocol by opening and approving the Trump probe on his own, and emails released Friday showed his determination to move it along.
“I’m looking forward to seeing this case progress,” Thibault said in one email released by the senators. “The case will be prioritized over all others in the branch. Thank you for your patience, it frankly took too long for us to open this.”
Thibault at the time was the assistant special agent in charge of the criminal division in the Northern Virginia regional office of the Washington field office.
Washington Times reporters Stephen Dinan and Kerry Picket noted in a March 14 report: "In addition to the president’s phone, the FBI also got data from cellphones used by former Attorney General William Barr, acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark and BJay Pak, a former U.S. attorney in Georgia. Agents also got search warrants to look through email accounts of Clark, several other Trump-connected lawyers and Mark Meadows, who had been White House chief of staff."
Grassley and Johnson sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel asking to see all FBI records related to Arctic Frost. They also asked for a final accounting of how much the FBI spent on the investigation.
“Quite simply, the public has a right to know what happened in Arctic Frost and, based on what we’ve exposed to date, the American public deserves better from its law enforcement agencies,” the senators said.
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