Blackburn to Sue Jack Smith and DOJ Officials Over Alleged 2023 Surveillance of Republican Senators

Tennessee senator says FBI probe under “Arctic Frost” violated constitutional protections; cites political targeting of Trump supporters

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) says she plans to sue former Special Counsel Jack Smith and several Biden-era Justice Department officials following revelations that federal investigators obtained phone records belonging to multiple Republican lawmakers in 2023.

Blackburn told Just the News that she and seven other GOP senators were targeted during Smith’s “Arctic Frost” investigation—an internal code name for a probe examining communications surrounding the 2020 election challenges by President Trump and members of Congress. The inquiry reportedly subpoenaed data from major wireless carriers, including Verizon and AT&T, months before Trump’s August 2023 federal indictment.

“We will be suing the Biden DOJ, Jack Smith, and his CR-15 team,” Blackburn said. “It’s the First and Fourth Amendments that were violated — plus our Speech and Debate Clause, separation of powers, and the Stored Communications Act.”

According to Blackburn, the “common thread” among those surveilled was that “all eight were Republicans” who supported Trump’s election-related objections. She said Senate records show Verizon received the subpoena in May 2023, several months earlier than initially believed.

Documents Revealed by Grassley Inquiry

The existence of the subpoenas was first disclosed this month after Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) requested oversight documents from the FBI. The records indicated that Smith’s office sought metadata on roughly a dozen GOP lawmakers, including Blackburn, Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Ron Johnson (Wis.), Josh Hawley (Mo.), Bill Hagerty (Tenn.), Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.), Dan Sullivan (Alaska), and Tommy Tuberville (Ala.), along with Rep. Mike Kelly (Pa.).

Blackburn told Fox News Digital she was unaware of the surveillance until the FBI’s October disclosure and called the operation “illegal and unprecedented.”

“The eight of us are all Republicans. We all support President Trump,” Blackburn said. “This is about making certain we have one tier of justice — not two.”

Letters to Carriers and Attorney General

Last week, Blackburn and four other lawmakers — Graham, Tuberville, Sullivan, and Kelly — sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi demanding an investigation into Smith and referral to the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility. They also wrote to AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon seeking explanations for why the companies turned over data without notifying affected members of Congress.

Blackburn said Verizon, her carrier, failed to alert her to the request. “You would have thought that because of the Stored Records Act and the First and Fourth Amendments … they would have informed me,” she said.

Political and Legal Fallout

Smith, who previously prosecuted the federal cases against Trump, is already under investigation by the Office of Special Counsel for alleged Hatch Act violations. The Justice Department’s Inspector General has not confirmed whether a separate review into the Arctic Frost subpoenas is underway.

Blackburn’s planned lawsuit — expected to name Smith, FBI agents involved in the requests, and senior DOJ officials — is likely to test the limits of congressional immunity under the Speech and Debate Clause. Constitutional scholars say few precedents exist for sitting senators suing executive-branch prosecutors over surveillance.

Tennessee Context

In Tennessee, Blackburn’s move intensifies Republican messaging around alleged federal overreach and politicization of law enforcement — a theme that has dominated state GOP rhetoric since the 2022 Mar-a-Lago search. Her colleague Sen. Bill Hagerty, also reportedly surveilled, has demanded separate answers from Verizon about the scope of the data collection.

The controversy arrives as President Trump’s allies press Congress for sweeping reforms of the DOJ and FBI. Blackburn has repeatedly vowed that a second Trump administration would “end the weaponization of government once and for all.”