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From Fox News: The Biden White House turned over government cellphones belonging to President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence to the FBI in May 2022 as part of a bureau probe into the aftermath of the 2020 election, tying Trump to that investigation without sufficient predication, Fox News Digital has learned.
The FBI did not need a warrant to physically obtain the government phones from the Biden White House.
But after acquiring the devices, agents began drafting a search warrant to extract the phones’ data, sources familiar with the investigation told Fox News Digital.
“The Biden White House played right along with the FBI’s ‘gotcha’ scheme against Trump,” a source familiar with the investigation told Fox News Digital. “Biden’s Office of White House Counsel, under the leadership of Dana Remus and Jonathan Su, gave its blessing and accommodation for the FBI to physically obtain Trump and Pence’s phones in early May 2022. Weeks later, the FBI began drafting a search warrant to extract the phones’ data.”
The phones were obtained and entered as evidence as part of the FBI’s original anti-Trump 2020 election investigation, which eventually was taken over by special counsel Jack Smith. That case was known inside the bureau as “Arctic Frost” and was opened April 13, 2022, by anti-Trump former FBI agent Timothy Thibault.
Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office announced, “Sen. @ChuckGrassley and @SenRonJohnson are exposing how the @FBI used taxpayer dollars to fund a political investigation of President Trump in 2022. Records show an anti-Trump agent drove the probe, raising serious concerns about bias and misguided priorities at the highest levels of law enforcement. The American people deserve full transparency.”
🚨 Sen. @ChuckGrassley and @SenRonJohnson are exposing how the @FBI used taxpayer dollars to fund a political investigation of President Trump in 2022. Records show an anti-Trump agent drove the probe, raising serious concerns about bias and misguided priorities at the highest… https://t.co/IOhboJvLTO
— Sen. Grassley Press (@GrassleyPress) March 14, 2025
A press release posted on Sen. Grassley’s website provides extensive details of the scheme, and reads as follows:
Grassley, Johnson Release Records Showing FBI Obtained Trump, Pence Cell Phones, Conducted Sweeping Interviews to Advance Anti-Trump Arctic Frost Investigation
WASHINGTON – In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) made public legally protected whistleblower disclosures showing the FBI, as part of its Arctic Frost investigation, acquired the government cell phones of President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence, among other government officials. FBI agents used taxpayer dollars to crisscross the country and conduct dozens of interviews in support of the political probe.
The unclassified FBI records convey the alarming scope and speed of the FBI’s 2022 investigation of President Trump, which they dubbed “Operation Arctic Frost.” The investigation – launched by anti-Trump FBI agent Timothy Thibault in a breach of FBI protocol – formed the basis of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s elector case against Trump. Upon opening the investigation, Thibault vowed it would be “prioritized over all others in the Branch” and commented that “it frankly took too long for us to open this [investigation].”
“Sunshine is the best disinfectant,” the chairmen wrote to Bondi and Patel. “The American people deserve to know the complete extent of the corruption within the DOJ and FBI that led to the investigation into President Trump. We are making this information public for purposes of public accountability and to provide specific examples of past behavior at your institutions that must not be repeated. Quite simply, the public has a right to know what happened in Arctic Frost and, based on what we’ve exposed to date, the American public deserves better from its law enforcement agencies. It is important that every individual at your agencies maintains the highest level of professionalism, and does not allow political bias to motivate or guide their investigative work.”
Within weeks of opening Arctic Frost on April 13, 2022, FBI agents began taking aggressive action to build out their case. The following is a summary of some Arctic Frost investigatory updates, based on unclassified internal FBI records:
- FBI begins scheduling over a dozen interviews in coordination with 13 FBI field offices.
- DOJ and FBI begin the process of acquiring Trump and Pence’s government phones, which were in the Biden White House’s possession.
- FBI begins analyzing communications between Trump team members and Republican electors.
- FBI meets with Justice Department (DOJ) officials to discuss possible search warrants for the Trump and Pence cell phones.
- FBI attempts to contact individuals in states throughout the country to schedule interviews.
- FBI obtains Trump and Pence’s government phones and enters them into evidence for the case.
- FBI interviews the first Trump administration’s Deputy White House Counsel.
- Additional interviews are planned with Trump administration officials, including employees from the Offices of the President and Vice President, DOJ and former Director of National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe.
- DOJ and FBI begin discussing the possibility of merging the DOJ Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigation, which included former Acting Assistant Attorney General (AAG) for the Civil Division, Jeffrey Clark, with the FBI’s Arctic Frost investigation.
- DOJ OIG makes plans to seek search warrants for phones associated with former AAG Jeffrey Clark, John Eastman, Mark Meadows and Ken Klukowski.
- FBI makes the decision to add former AAG Jeffrey Clark to the Arctic Frost investigation.
- FBI drafts a search warrant for the Trump and Pence cell phones in its possession.
- Plans continue for additional interviews with former Trump administration officials.
- FBI plans to conduct approximately 50 interviews, coupled with subpoenas, across at least seven states during the week of June 20, 2022. Interviews are set to take place with those who “signed and/or mailed the certificates in each state, as well as the Trump Campaign’s Directors of Election Day Operations for the relevant states, and certain GOP officials who are believed to have facilitated the scheme by communicating with individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the ‘fraudulent’ or ‘alternate’ electors.”
- The DOJ OIG investigation that includes Jeffrey Clark is formally merged with the FBI Arctic Frost investigation, providing FBI access to phones and email accounts from a variety of DOJ officials, including former Attorney General Bill Barr.
- Over the course of just four days in June 2022, the FBI Arctic Frost team spent approximately $16,000 in taxpayer-funded travel to “conduct more than 40 interviews, serve subpoenas and execute several cellular device search warrants.”
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Biden White House Counsel and Justice Department raided Trump’s presidential cell phone
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Grassley, Johnson Release Records Showing FBI Obtained Trump, Pence Cell Phones, Conducted Sweeping Interviews To Advance Anti-Trump Arctic Frost Investigationhttps://t.co/r7QuWdksZA
— 🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸 (@mrddmia) March 14, 2025
Biden White House turned over Trump, Pence government cellphones to FBI as part of anti-Trump agent’s case https://t.co/wfP7QvTvly
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 14, 2025
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