{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/2025/10/general/blackburn-leads-colleagues-in-calling-for-doj-investigation-into-jack-smith-for-spying-on-republican-members-of-congress", "Blackburn Leads Colleagues in Calling for DOJ Investigation into Jack Smith for Spying on Republican Members of Congress", "2025-10-17", "2025", "2025-10", "Republican", "Senate", "TN", "Marsha Blackburn", "B001243", "www.blackburn.senate.gov", "blackburn", "https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/news/cc8c80c1-d564-4bbb-93a4-f1d772346ae0", "scraper", "NASHVILLE, Tenn. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn led Members of Congress who were spied on by President Joe Biden\u2019s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in sending a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi urging her to refer former Special Counsel Jack Smith to the Department of Justice\u2019s Office of Professional Responsibility for investigation. Jack Smith allegedly engaged in serious prosecutorial misconduct through the politically motivated Arctic Frost investigation and must face appropriate consequences, up to and including disbarment.\n\nThis follows Senator Blackburn\u2019s efforts to demand answers from cell phone carriers as to why these companies allowed the Biden FBI to allegedly track the private communications and phone calls of eight U.S. Senators, including Senator Blackburn.\n\nJack Smith Must Be Held Accountable for Weaponized Witch Hunt\n\n\u201cWe write today following last week\u2019s deeply disturbing revelations that the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) spied on duly elected members of Congress, specifically seeking and ultimately obtaining \u2018tolling data\u2019 from cell phones as part of its corrupt, politically motivated Arctic Frost investigation. It is clear to us that this invasion of our privacy was nothing more than a fishing expedition geared toward targeting President Trump. For the reasons outlined below, we request that you immediately refer Jack Smith to the Department\u2019s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR). As part of Jack Smith\u2019s weaponized witch hunt, the Biden DOJ issued subpoenas to several telecommunications companies in 2023 regarding our cell phone records, gaining access to the time, recipient, duration, and location of calls placed on our devices from January 4, 2021, to January 7, 2021. We have yet to learn of any criminal predicate for the Biden Department of Justice issuing subpoenas to obtain these cell phone records.\u201d\n\nAs a Rogue Special Counsel, Jack Smith Would Do Anything to Stop President Trump\n\n\u201cWhile we await further details on these troubling revelations as DOJ and the FBI continue to investigate, one thing is clear: Jack Smith was a rogue Special Counsel who, based on his conduct in the Arctic Frost matter, would do anything to stop President Trump\u2014including taking concerted steps to spy on duly elected members of Congress. In the United States, one of the fundamental principles of our constitutional republic is the concept of separation of powers. By infringing on our constitutional rights and obligations as elected federal officials, Jack Smith and his team of prosecutors trampled on this separation of powers principle that underlies our system of government. This is especially true given the invasion of our privacy was directly connected to our core legislative functions protected by the Speech or Debate Clause of our Constitution.\u201d\n\nJack Smith Likely Engaged in Serious Prosecutorial Misconduct by Spying on Members of Congress and Should Be Referred to DOJ\n\n\u201cIn addition to these constitutional concerns, we believe that Jack Smith engaged in serious prosecutorial misconduct. Without any sufficient rationale or cause, Jack Smith\u2019s team used a federal grand jury subpoena to obtain the phone records of sitting United States Senators and a Member of the House of Representatives. To the best we can tell, Smith\u2019s team went on this fishing expedition for one simple reason: we are Republicans who support President Trump. And, as noted above, we have no knowledge of any predicate that underlies this invasion of our privacy. To that end, we urge you to immediately refer Jack Smith\u2014and any of his prosecutors who assisted with the issuance of these subpoenas to the nine members of Congress\u2014to the Department\u2019s Office of Professional Responsibility. As you know, the mission of OPR \u2018is to ensure that Department attorneys perform their duties in accordance with the highest professional standards, as would be expected of the nation\u2019s principal law enforcement agency.\u2019 From the information we already know, it is clear that Jack Smith\u2019s conduct fell far below these \u2018highest professional standards.\u2019\u201d\n\nJack Smith Must Be Held Accountable to the Fullest Extent for Misconduct, Including Disbarment\n\n\u201cSmith is licensed to practice law in both Tennessee and New York and, in both jurisdictions, the Rules of Professional Conduct strictly prohibit a lawyer from using \u2018means that have no substantial purpose other than to embarrass, delay, or burden a third person or knowingly use methods of obtaining evidence that violate the legal rights of such a person.\u2019 It is blatantly clear that, by seeking these phone records without our knowledge and consent and without any known criminal predicate, the Special Counsel has violated this provision of the Rules of Professional Conduct that is intended to prevent precisely the type of conduct that occurred in this matter. Upon completion of OPR\u2019s investigation of Jack Smith, we urge you to promptly refer the findings of your inquiry to both the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility and the relevant New York Attorney Grievance Committee. We firmly believe that, upon examination of OPR\u2019s findings, these state entities should consider all options in holding Smith accountable for this misconduct\u2014including disbarment. The conduct that Jack Smith and his team engaged in harkens back to a dark chapter in American history that we have not seen since the days of J. Edgar Hoover, and we must ensure that we never return to that era again.\u201d\n\nSenators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and U.S. Representative Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) joined Senator Blackburn in sending the letter.\n\nClick here to read the full letter.\n\nRELATED\n\nBlackburn Demands Answers from Cell Phone Carriers Who Allowed Biden FBI to Spy on Members of Congress", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/2025/10/general/blackburn-leads-colleagues-in-calling-for-doj-investigation-into-jack-smith-for-spying-on-republican-members-of-congress"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5664859674870968, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}