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EXCLUSIVE: Former Rep. Louie Gohmert blasted ex-Special Counsel Jack Smith for allegedly targeting his personal phone records as part of his investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots, telling Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that his action “destroys the checks and balances that the founders counted on.”
Fox News Digital exclusively reported Thursday morning that Smith targeted then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s personal, private phone records, as well as Gohmert’s.
JACK SMITH SOUGHT THEN-HOUSE SPEAKER MCCARTHY’S PRIVATE PHONE RECORDS IN J6 PROBE, FBI DOCS REVEAL
Fox News Digital exclusively reviewed the document that FBI Director Kash Patel recently shared with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson containing the explosive revelations. Grassley and Johnson have been leading a joint investigation into Smith’s “Arctic Frost” probe.
UNITED STATES – JUNE 13: Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, leaves the House Republican Conference meeting at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington on Wednesday morning, June 13, 2018. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
According to the document, Smith, on Jan. 24, 2023, allegedly sought the “toll records for the personal cell phones of U.S. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (AT&T) and U.S. Representative Louie Gohmert (Verizon.)”
The information was included as part of a “significant case notification” drafted by the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division May 25, 2023.
“It is astounding that Jack ‘Frost’ Smith went on this persecution,” Gohmert told Fox News Digital Thursday. “Apparently, this guy has never read the Fourth Amendment because you have to describe with particularity what it is you’re going after — there should be probable cause, and they had no probable cause. They were going on a witch hunt.”
Smith had sought Gohmert’s personal cellphone records from November 2020 through the end of January 2021.
“They don’t have any regard for the Fourth Amendment,” he said. “It makes Watergate look like school yard folly.”
But Gohmert said it is the “principle.”
Then-Special Counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on an unsealed indictment including four felony counts against former President Donald Trump Aug. 1, 2023, in Washington. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“It is the separation of powers that is the problem,” Gohmert explained. “People and whistleblowers contacted me regularly from within the DOJ and the FBI about overreach within the FBI and DOJ. By grabbing my records, they could stifle reporting of potential crimes by people within the agencies.”
JACK SMITH TRACKED PRIVATE COMMUNICATIONS, CALLS OF NEARLY A DOZEN GOP SENATORS DURING J6 PROBE, FBI SAYS
“You can’t just go seize members of Congress’ records even with a warrant because of that separation of powers,” Gohmert said. “There has to be a wall and that’s what troubles me more than anything.”
Gohmert told Fox News Digital that he didn’t remember who he spoke with during the time period Smith sought records, but said that “the last thing I want is for someone who trusted me to keep their name private to have some jack-booted thug like Jack ‘Frost’ Smith grab my records and find out who is tattle tailing on him.”
He added: “It violates and destroys the checks and balances that the founders counted on.”
Gohmert, though, told Fox News Digital that he trusts the current Justice Department and FBI leadership.
“I trust the DOJ and trust the people running the FBI,” he said. “We’ll see if there were any crimes committed and, if following the Constitution, they can be properly prosecuted.”
HAGERTY PRESSES VERIZON OVER FBI’S ACCESS TO HIS PHONE RECORDS DURING JACK SMITH PROBE
Meanwhile, McCarthy said he will take legal action against Smith.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Nov. 5, 2021, as the House is considering President Joe Biden’s $1.85 trillion-and-growing domestic policy package. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) (AP)
“Jack Smith’s radical and deranged investigation was never about finding the truth,” McCarthy told Fox News Digital. “It was a blatant weaponizing of the Justice Department to attack political opponents of the Biden administration. Perhaps no action underscores this point more than the illegal attempt to access the phone records of sitting members of the House and Senate — including the Speaker of the House.”
“His illegal targeting demands real accountability,” McCarthy continued. “And I am confident Congress will hold hearings and access documents in its investigation into Jack Smith’s own abuses.”
HAGERTY PRESSES VERIZON OVER FBI’S ACCESS TO HIS PHONE RECORDS DURING JACK SMITH PROBE
“At the same time, I will ask my own counsel to pursue all areas of redress so this does not happen to anyone else,” McCarthy said.
The revelations come after Fox News Digital exclusively reported in October that Smith and his “Arctic Frost” team investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots were tracking the private communications and phone calls of nearly a dozen Republican senators as part of the probe, including Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and GOP Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania.
An official told Fox News Digital that those records were collected in 2023 by Smith and his team after subpoenaing major telephone providers.
Smith has called his decision to subpoena and track Republican lawmakers’ phone records “entirely proper” and consistent with Justice Department policy.
“As described by various Senators, the toll data collection was narrowly tailored and limited to the four days from January 4, 2021 to January 7, 2021, with a focus on telephonic activity during the period immediately surrounding the January 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol,” Smith’s lawyers wrote in October to Grassley.
Grassley, R-Iowa, and Johnson, R-Wis., have been investigating the matter.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., have been investigating the matter. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
An FBI official told Fox News Digital that “Arctic Frost” is a “prohibited case,” and that the review required FBI officials to go “above and beyond in order to deliver on this promise of transparency.” The discovery is part of a broader ongoing review, Fox News Digital has learned.
Smith, after months of investigating, charged President Donald Trump in the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., in his 2020 election case, but after Trump was elected president, Smith sought to dismiss the case. Judge Tanya Chutkan granted that request.
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Smith’s case cost taxpayers more than $50 million.
Smith did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
