FBI Probe Targeted Conservative Groups, Including Kirk’s, Grassley Says

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Tuesday released new documents suggesting that several conservative organizations were targeted by the FBI as part of its investigation into the aftermath of the 2020 election under then Director Christopher Wray.

The probe, dubbed “Arctic Frost,” served as the basis for Special Counsel Jack Smith’s federal prosecution of then-candidate Donald Trump, alleging that he had attempted to overturn the 2020 election.

But that probe “was much broader than just an electoral matter,” Grassley said during a Sept. 16 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with FBI Director Kash Patel.

Instead, Grassley said during his opening remarks, Arctic Frost “was the vehicle by which partisan FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors could achieve their partisan ends and improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus.”

According to new documents released by Grassley, conservative groups—including Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA, the Republican National Committee, the Republican Attorneys General Association, the America First Policy Institute, and others—were targeted by the probe.

In total, Grassley said, 92 conservative groups were “placed under the investigative scope of Arctic Frost.”

During questioning of Patel, Grassley asked what the FBI would do to ensure such a situation wouldn’t occur again.

“The simple answer, Mr. Chairman, is the FBI will only bring cases that are based in facts and law, and have a legal basis to do so,” Patel said. “Anyone who does otherwise will not be employed at the FBI.”

Patel said the agency was doing internal reviews to identify agents who may have engaged in partisan weaponization of the agency during President Joe Biden’s administration.

“This FBI will not be weaponized anymore, on either side of the aisle,” Patel said.

The day after the Judiciary Committee questioned Patel about the investigation, Trump said in a social media post that the Biden administration “tried to force Charlie, and many other people and movements, out of business,” saying it “Weaponized the Justice Department” against Biden’s political opponents.

The investigation into Arctic Frost comes after conservatives for years expressed concerns that Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI were being weaponized against them.

Critics accused the resources and methods used in Jan. 6 investigations of being excessive.

Others who alleged political weaponization pointed to FBI and DOJ memos and directives targeting parents attending school board meetings, or traditional Catholics.

Trump’s supporters also pointed to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, the FBI’s probe into alleged collusion between Trump and Russia in 2016.

A report by Special Counsel John Durham concluded in May 2023 that the investigation had been mishandled and was tainted by “confirmation bias” on the part of lead agents.

Charges of political weaponization escalated after Smith in August 2023 achieved a grand jury indictment of Trump on charges related to the aftermath of the 2020 election including conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy against rights, obstructing an official proceeding, and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.

Grassley has been pursuing investigations into the origin of this case for months, and has disclosed links to politically biased actors at the FBI.

In April, he wrote that “legally protected whistleblower disclosures … show a politically driven conspiracy among anti-Trump FBI agents and prosecutors in setting up and advancing the Arctic Frost investigation.”

In January, Grassley released FBI whistleblower disclosures which he said “prove the genesis of the federal election interference case brought against President Trump began at the hands of a prolific anti-Trump FBI agent who acted outside of established protocol for opening cases.”

The agent in question, Timothy Thibault, authored the initial language of the case that would become Smith’s prosecution, effectively “opening and approving his own investigation,” according to Grassley. Grassley said Thibault stepped down from the bureau after Grassley made his anti-Trump bias public.

In a 2022 letter to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland and Wray, Grassley accused Thibault of “a pattern of active public partisanship in his … social media content.” Thibault made his social media pages private following the accusations.