House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) has revealed that the Biden Justice Department secretly collected his phone records for more than two years as part of an expansive investigation known as Operation Arctic Frost. In an interview with Newsmax, Jordan said federal prosecutors subpoenaed his phone metadata from January 2020 through April 2022, an unprecedented span that he described as “creepy” and politically motivated.
“When you think about what they did for two and a half years — who you call, who called you, how long the call lasted, when the call took place — and if I initiated the call, they know where you were when you made it,” Jordan said. “That’s kind of creepy that the government’s doing that and gathering up that information for that long of a period of time.”
The subpoena was issued to Verizon by a federal prosecutor who later joined Special Counsel Smith’s team. It directed the company to turn over “toll records” — including call logs, message metadata, and location data — and was accompanied by a one-year gag order. It also sought similar data for three other phone numbers, whose owners remain undisclosed.
Jordan said the subpoena was dated April 2022, only months after the launch of Arctic Frost, which was initially billed as a limited investigation into “alternate electors” related to the 2020 election but later expanded into a wide-ranging probe that included Trump campaign associates and Republican lawmakers.
“It was supposed to be about the alternate electors on January 6, 2021,” Jordan said. “They started a year before that. They issued this subpoena literally 12 days after the investigation began. What’s our government doing getting that kind of information on one of its citizens — and a member of Congress?”
According to the subpoena, Verizon was “commanded” to produce not only metadata but also any associated image and encryption data. Analysts said the scope appeared to be among the broadest known surveillance orders targeting sitting lawmakers.
“This wasn’t about security or law enforcement,” Jordan said on Fox News. “This was about spying on political opponents. The Biden DOJ wanted to know who Republicans were talking to and what we were doing.”
Operation Arctic Frost ultimately fed into the Jack Smith special counsel investigation, which brought charges against former President Trump earlier this year. Smith’s office has not commented on the claims involving Jordan’s phone records.
The Ohio Republican, who previously served as the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee before becoming chair in 2023, said prosecutors refused to disclose how many other members of Congress were swept up in the data dragnet.
“When we asked Thomas Windom, Jack Smith’s top deputy, how many members of Congress they got phone records on, he wouldn’t answer,” Jordan said. “That tells you everything you need to know.”
The revelations confirm the Biden regime’s aggressive surveillance campaign against political opponents. Fox News reporter Ashley Oliver called the subpoena “the most expansive yet of the publicly known orders targeting sitting lawmakers.”
Republican allies described the revelations as proof of systemic abuse. “Seizing members’ phone records is not law enforcement — it’s political espionage,” one senior GOP staffer told The Washington Times. “If this happened in any other democracy, it would be considered a scandal of the first order.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi has previously said Arctic Frost and related investigations demonstrated “how far the Biden DOJ went to weaponize government power against its political enemies.”
Jordan and other lawmakers have pledged to use their committee authority to seek records from the Justice Department and subpoena those involved in authorizing the surveillance.
“We’re going to get answers,” he said. “This is exactly the kind of weaponization that Americans are tired of — government agencies spying on political rivals while pretending to protect democracy.”
Reports this fall also indicated that the Biden DOJ sought phone data from several other Republicans.
