From Just The News: Then-Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office approved paying $20,000 in 2023 to a confidential human source for information in the controversial FBI investigation code-named Arctic Frost that probed efforts by President Donald Trump and his followers to contest the 2020 election results, according to documents obtained by Just the News.
The revelation is included in a tranche of new memos that FBI Director Kash Patel turned over to Congress this week that provide more clarity on the tactics and scope of the inquiry that agents and prosecutors used to try to build a case that Trump, his lawyers and allies had violated the law by attempting to offer the Senate alternate electors ahead of the certification of the 2020 election results that put Joe Biden into office.
Patel told Just the News that the bombshell revelation of paid snitch was the latest evidence that the Arctic Frost probe was an “egregious abuse of power and violation of the law.”
The records reveal multiple efforts by FBI supervisors to make Trump himself a “subject” of the probe, an idea that was ultimately rejected, their reliance on information in liberal media outlets to build the case as well as the sheer magnitude of major Trump figures whose phone or email records were exploited by the FBI for possible evidence of wrongdoing.
A memo dated June 5, 2023 describes the $20,000 payoff to someone for digging up dirt on President Trump, and says, “The payment was discussed by Raymond Hulser and Assistant Special Counsel Julia Gegenheimer with Special Counsel Jack Smith.”
NEW: Jack Smith paid an FBI informant (CHS) to get dirt on Trump in Arctic Frost investigation pic.twitter.com/NGDP6PIFbS
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) January 10, 2026
Patel then confirmed on a post on X, “Jack Smith’s team approved a $20,000 payment to an informant to target President Trump and his allies in Arctic Frost. That’s not law enforcement, it’s weaponization. This FBI is exposing the truth, producing records, and restoring accountability.”
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) January 10, 2026
President Donald Trump reacted to the report in a Truth Social post, writing, “Deranged Jack Smith should be sitting in prison for all that he has done to disgrace our Country!”
🚨 BREAKING: President Trump says it’s time to put Jack Smith in PRISON after they approved a $20K payment for an “INFORMANT”
“Deranged Jack Smith should be sitting in prison for all that he has done to disgrace our Country!“
Lock him up! pic.twitter.com/cpuz2xi726
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 10, 2026
The report also notes that during Smith’s investigation, the FBI obtained email records from nearly 150 figures in Trump world and analyzed their phone data, including nine Republican Trump allies in Congress, as well as his lawyers and some of his outside advisers, such as Steve Bannon. Also included were Trump’s former campaign manager Bill Stepien, personal lawyers Sidney Powell, Jenne Ellis and Cleta Mitchell, the late former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik, and former vice president Mike Pence.
CLICK HERE to read some of the memos discovered in the investigation.
READ MORE from Just The News.
RELATED NEWS:
Arctic Frost began at FBI under the codename “Hyperbolic Frost” w a clear goal frm the start: 2get “DJT” aka Pres Donald J Trump
Under Jack Smith’s direction it became a runaway train that targeted the entire Republican political apparatus
My + Sen Johnson’s oversight continues pic.twitter.com/zkdoSI2cIE
— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) January 9, 2026
Over two months ago the House Judiciary Committee just PROVED that Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson, while working on the J6 Select Committee, were actually working DIRECTLY with Jack Smith to take down Trump.
This is HIGHLY illegal.
It was all a PROVEN SETUP.
Lock them up. pic.twitter.com/ef1SH3bJ0o
— Mila Joy (@Milajoy) January 9, 2026
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