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."
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.
Brooke Singman is a political correspondent and reporter for Fox News Digital, Fox News Channel and FOX Business.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/former-rep-louie-gohmert-blasts-jack-smith-allegedly-targeting-his-personal-phone-records-j6-probe