Jan. 6 probe analyzed GOP lawmakers’ phone records, senators say

WASHINGTON — Federal investigators collected and analyzed call records from the personal cellphones of eight senators and one representative as part of an investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol building, the office of Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley said Monday.

The FBI in 2023 sought the data about phone use from Jan. 4, 2021, to Jan. 7, 2021, and it shows when and to whom a call was made, as well as the duration and general location data of the call, Grassley’s office said. The data does not include the content of the call.

Grassley’s office released an FBI record that states a special agent did a “preliminary toll analysis on limited tolls records” associated with the nine GOP lawmakers.

They are Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Hagerty and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania.

“What I’ve uncovered today is disturbing and outrageous political conduct by the Biden FBI,” Grassley said in a news release. “The FBI’s actions were an unconstitutional breach, and Attorney General Bondi and Director Patel need to hold accountable those involved in this serious wrongdoing.”

A spokesperson for Grassley’s office referred to a press release when asked why the senator described the actions as unconstitutional, or if there was information about what authority the FBI used to get the phone records. The press release said the document was found as part of the Iowa Republican’s oversight efforts since 2022 into an FBI probe eventually assigned to special counsel John L. “Jack” Smith.

A grand jury in 2023 indicted Donald Trump on four federal charges tied to his effort to overturn his loss in the 2020 election, one of two cases Smith brought against the former president.

Graham, in a video reaction, said the FBI called to tell him Smith “asked phone companies to provide records of who I called, as a sitting senator, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in Jan. 2021, trying to figure out if I should certify the election.”

“To believe that the Department of Justice, or a special counsel, would subpoena who I called, where I called from, should bother everybody,” Graham said. “It certainly bothers the hell out of me.”

The Supreme Court raised protections for cell phone location information in 2018 under certain circumstances, though it is not clear if that applies in this situation. The majority noted the privacy concerns that “a phone goes wherever its owner goes, conveying to the wireless carrier not just dialed digits, but a detailed and comprehensive record of the person’s movements.”

And the majority wrote that “when the Government tracks the location of a cell phone it achieves near perfect surveillance, as if it had attached an ankle monitor to the phone’s user.”

Hawley and Tuberville reacted to the release by saying they had their phones tapped, which typically is shorthand for listening to the content of a person’s phone conversations. Hawley, in a social media post, said “Biden’s Stasi” had “tried to tap the phones of their political enemies. Including mine.”

“This is an abuse of power beyond Watergate, beyond J. Edgar Hoover, one that directly strikes at the Constitution, the separation of powers, and the First Amendment,” Hawley said. “We need a full investigation of all involved: who knew about it, who ordered it, and who approved it. Anyone and everyone who violated the law must be prosecuted. The way to save the country is to restore the rule of law.”

Trump successfully delayed the Washington case brought by Smith for months in the run-up to the 2024 election, which included a Supreme Court decision that found presidents are immune from federal charges for most official acts.

Smith dropped the charges after the election, pointing to the Office of Legal Counsel’s new determination that the case had to be dropped in such an “unprecedented” situation of a federal defendant winning the presidency.