Secret Spy Probe Triggers Legal Clash

Senator Bill Hagerty (TN) just announced that he’s filed a formal complaint against the FCC for Verizon’s role in handing out the private phone records of GOP Members of Congress – including his own – during Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Arctic Frost probe into President Donald Trump’s alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Along with Sen. Hagerty, Arctic Frost targeted multiple prominent Republicans, including Sens. Marsha Blackburn (TN), Josh Hawley (MO), Ted Cruz (TX), and others. Now these lawmakers want answers from the telecommunications giants who happily complied without a fight, handing over their personal records to be scrutinized as part of Smith’s bogus investigation.

As explained in the official press release from Sen. Hagerty’s office:

Today, Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) took the first legal action of any member of Congress against Verizon for violating federal law by disclosing the senator’s phone records to President Biden’s DOJ—cooperating with Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation targeting President Trump and his supporters, now known as Arctic Frost.

Senator Hagerty filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission outlining how Verizon violated federal law by disclosing the senator’s customer proprietary network information and for failing to take reasonable measures to protect his information.

Senator Hagerty is represented by David Thompson and Clark Hildabrand of Cooper & Kirk, attorneys with a long track record of success all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. . . .

“Verizon eagerly handed my private phone records without a fight,” said Senator Hagerty. “I’ve been a customer for decades—Verizon’s complicity in the witch hunt against President Trump and his supporters, like me, constitutes a profound breach of trust. If this can happen to a sitting United States Senator, it can happen to any American. We need accountability.”

“That’s why I’m pleased to take this first step in holding Verizon’s feet to the fire. Their CEO, Dan Schulman, and CLO Vandana Venkatesh, a former Henry Waxman staffer, chose to ignore my inquiries when I sent them letters. Maybe the FCC will fare better.”

“Any customer would expect Verizon to challenge a patently unconstitutional subpoena like the one it received for my records, but Verizon just rolled over instead, and that disclosure violated federal law and the FCC’s regulations.

The Biden DOJ would never have gotten my phone records if Verizon hadn’t played along. I’m not asking for compensation. I’m asking to get to the bottom of what happened. I want Verizon to discipline its leaders who were responsible, and I want to make sure it will never happen again.”

It really sets a troubling precedent that completely jeopardizes American trust in our right to privacy, the separation of powers, and government accountability, when we learn our federal government is launching investigations and spying on its own colleagues. Sen. Hagerty is now the first Member of Congress to formally push back against the shadowy targeting of conservative lawmakers.

As revealed, the DOJ and FBI issued sealed subpoenas to telecom companies like AT&T and Verizon – carriers many of us use every day – demanding the phone records of sitting U.S. Senators and a member of the House without notifying any of them. And what would be laughable if it weren’t so serious, they justified keeping the subpoenas a secret by labeling the lawmakers in question as potential “flight risks.” What exactly would they be flying from – an investigation they didn’t even know they were the targets of?

Thankfully, Sen. Hagerty is now taking action at the FCC, filing a complaint against Verizon for blindly complying with the subpoena without any pushback. Hagerty’s complaint demands full documentation from the telecommunications giant explaining how the subpoena was processed. He’s also demanding a formal apology from Verizon, an official admission of wrongdoing, and meaningful reforms to ensure this never happens again.

Now it would be easy for critics of Hagerty to say, Well, what was Verizon supposed to do? Tell the federal government NO? Yes, as a matter of fact. It’s certainly happened before. No company has to roll over without at least asking some questions first.

In fact, what makes this case especially revealing is that not every carrier that received a subpoena immediately acquiesced. AT&T pushed back when asked to turn over Sen. Cruz’s records, and when they did, the Biden DOJ mysteriously never followed up on the demand again. That silence speaks volumes. It suggests that when even their questionable demand was answered with the slightest resistance, prosecutors knew they were standing on shaky legal ground, and their flimsy subpoenas wouldn’t withstand the rumbling.

But it still raises the question: If all these telecom companies had simply asked a few basic legal questions about sealing orders, flight-risk claims, or why elected officials were being treated like criminal suspects, could this entire operation have been over before it really began? They surely have in-house counsel who should have known they were within their rights to ask for more information before handing over a single record.

We told you how the ACLJ filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests but received no timely response, so we are now suing multiple DOJ divisions and the FBI to force disclosure of internal communications, authorizations, and deliberations surrounding these subpoenas.

If federal agencies are willing to secretly obtain the phone records of sitting U.S. Senators by using absurd labels like “flight risk,” the privacy protections for everyday Americans don’t stand a chance. That’s unacceptable.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included more discussion with my brother, ACLJ Executive Director Jordan Sekulow, of Senator Hagerty’s action against Verizon for releasing his personal data. We were also joined by ACLJ Senior Counsel Jeff Ballabon, head of ACLJ Jerusalem, to discuss yesterday’s meeting of President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, which was unfortunately hijacked by one attendee spewing antisemitic rhetoric. 

Watch the full broadcast below: