{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-secures-commitment-from-trump-doj-to-investigate-biden-fbi-spying-on-him-calls-for-special-prosecutor/", "Hawley Secures Commitment from Trump DOJ to Investigate Biden FBI Spying on Him, Calls for Special Prosecutor", "2025-10-07", "2025", "2025-10", "Republican", "Senate", "MO", "Josh Hawley", "H001089", "www.hawley.senate.gov", "hawley", "https://www.hawley.senate.gov/press-releases/page/", "scraper", "Today, in a Senate Judiciary hearing, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) secured a commitment from Attorney General Pam Bondi that her Department of Justice (DOJ) would fully investigate how Joe Biden weaponized his DOJ to track Senator Hawley\u2019s personal communications and access his confidential phone records. Biden\u2019s special prosecutor Jack Smith also spied on seven other Republican members of Congress.\n\nSenator Hawley lamented Biden\u2019s weaponization of government against conservatives and what it means for the country, saying, \u201cI\u2019ve heard over and over from my Democrat colleagues, concerns about targeting political enemies, and they\u2019ve accused you of all manner of things, and the current president\u2026 I\u2019ve heard them say that \u2018Joe Biden never targeted his political enemies. Joe Biden never directed his attorney general to target his political opponents.\u2019 That\u2019s interesting, because I could have sworn that yesterday we learned that the FBI tapped my phone\u2026 tapped Lindsey Graham\u2019s phone, tapped Marsha Blackburn\u2019s phone, tapped five other phones of United States senators.\u201d\n\nSenator Hawley asked Attorney General Bondi, \u201cWhat was going on here? Who ordered this? Who ordered the tapping of the phones of United States Senators?\u201d\n\n\u201cWe will be looking at all aspects of this, and I have talked to Director Patel at length about this,\u201d Attorney General Bondi answered.\n\nSenator Hawley also reminded Attorney General Bondi of the litany of abuses that Biden\u2019s DOJ committed against everyday Americans, including pro-lifers, parents at school board meetings, and 92 conservative advocacy organizations like Charlie Kirk\u2019s Turning Point USA.\n\n\u201cSo here you have an administration that is activating the FBI against its political opponents and tapping the phones of United States senators\u2026. This is what was happening under Joe Biden\u2026 the political opponents of the president at the time, targeted, prosecuted. Pro-lifers, targeted, prosecuted. Catholics, targeted, prosecuted. 92 conservative organizations put under surveillance, targeted for potential prosecution. Gee, I don\u2019t know. Would you call that an example of weaponization, Attorney General Bondi?\u201d\n\nBondi replied, \u201cSenator Hawley, that is the ultimate weaponization, and weaponization under Donald Trump has ended\u2026 No longer will parents be targeted. No longer will parents who care about whether their elementary school children have to read a transgender book be targeted\u2026 People can worship freely, whether they\u2019re Catholics, at synagogues, or Muslims, everyone can worship freely. That was the ultimate weaponization. They were targeting Catholics \u2013 no longer. They have been targeting so many American citizens throughout this country. And Senator Hawley, you have been a champion of this, and thank you for being a champion of that. But under Donald Trump\u2019s watch, it has ended.\u201d\n\nSenator Hawley called for congressional hearings, full-scale investigations, and prosecutions, saying, \u201cMadam Attorney General, I think we need a special prosecutor to be appointed whose sole responsibility will be to get to the bottom of what has happened in every instance that I have just named. I think we need to know exactly who approved the wiretaps on United States Senators. Who knew about it, what agents were involved at DOJ or the FBI? I think we need to know exactly who signed off on the Catholic memo, the spying memo, who was involved with it\u2026 who terrorized pro-lifers and tried to intimidate them. I think we need to know. And this committee needs to do oversight hearings. We need to have thorough hearings into what has happened these last four years and this abuse that has now just been uncovered, because we have to ensure that it stops.\u201d", 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.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-secures-commitment-from-trump-doj-to-investigate-biden-fbi-spying-on-him-calls-for-special-prosecutor/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.323680091649294, "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"}