{"id":2668370,"date":"2026-09-23T11:35:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T15:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignbreaking-new-docs-indicate-biden-admin-okayed-subpoenas-of-republicans-phone-records\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T11:39:48","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T15:39:48","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignbreaking-new-docs-indicate-biden-admin-okayed-subpoenas-of-republicans-phone-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignbreaking-new-docs-indicate-biden-admin-okayed-subpoenas-of-republicans-phone-records\/","title":{"rendered":"Docs Show Biden Admin Okayed GOP Phone Record Subpoenas"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignbreaking-new-docs-indicate-biden-admin-okayed-subpoenas-of-republicans-phone-records%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2668370&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan released a 56-page interim report revealing that officials in the Biden administration\u2019s Department of Justice (DOJ) knew about and approved subpoenas of congressional Republicans\u2019 phone records before Jack Smith\u2019s appointment as special counsel. The report details that the DOJ\u2019s Public Integrity Section (PIN) instructed investigators to urgently notify their higher-ups of the subpoenas to members like Jim Jordan and Chip Roy, despite these actions potentially violating the Speech or Debate Clause protections. Evidence shows top DOJ political appointees, including Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Clarke and Timothy Duree, were aware of and approved these subpoenas, which aimed to gather information on members\u2019 communications around key votes. The DOJ\u2019s actions involved obtaining nondisclosure orders to prevent Congress members from asserting their constitutional rights. The report criticizes these procedures as constitutional violations, especially as the DOJ disregarded the legal protections afforded to legislative activities. Further, the examination uncovered that Smith&#8217;s team sought approval for additional subpoenas and informed high-level officials about their plans, all while withholding these actions from the courts. These revelations suggest a coordinated effort within the DOJ to surveil congressional opponents unlawfully, raising serious concerns about breaches of constitutional rights and politicization of federal investigations.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Public Integrity Section (\u201cPIN\u201d) of the Department of Justice told Arctic Frost investigators to notify the deputy attorney general \u201cvia urgent report\u201d of the FBI\u2019s plans to subpoena Republican Rep. Jim Jordan\u2019s toll records, repeating that directive a month later when agents sought to issue another subpoena for Rep. Chip Roy\u2019s records. And when questioned under oath by the House Judiciary Committee, agents acknowledged they would have followed the PIN directive, indicating the Biden administration and Attorney General Merrick Garland knew of the FBI\u2019s gross disregard of constitutional separation of powers and the Speech or Debate Clause protection afforded congressional leaders.<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday morning, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan released a 56-page interim report on \u201cHow Jack Smith and the Biden-Harris Department of Justice Disregarded the Separation of Powers to Spy on Their Political Opposition.\u201d While the report summarized previously known details of the Arctic Frost investigation and Special Counsel Jack Smith\u2019s unlawful subpoenaing of congressional toll records, Wednesday\u2019s release reveals for the first time evidence that, prior to Smith\u2019s appointment, a top DOJ official under the Biden administration knew of the plot to seize the records of congressional Republicans.<\/p>\n<p>According to the report, \u201c[b]eginning in May 2022, prosecutors under the leadership of U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves issued several subpoenas demanding telephone toll records for Members of Congress to identify individuals with whom they spoke around major votes in Congress . . .\u201d Graves previously garnered headlines when news <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/12\/30\/us-news\/us-attorney-matthew-graves-resigns-after-decisions-not-to-charge-hunter-biden-letting-dc-crime-run-rampant\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">broke<\/a> that he had refused to partner with the now-former U.S. attorney for Delaware, David Weiss, to bring criminal charges against Hunter Biden.<\/p>\n<p>However, before subpoenaing Jordan\u2019s toll records, Timothy Duree, then an assistant chief in the Criminal Division, reached out to PIN for guidance on the propriety of the requested subpoena. On April 26, 2022, Jennifer Clarke, a deputy chief in the PIN Section, responded by email, positing that the subpoena \u201c<em>arguably<\/em>\u201d does not violate the Speech or Debate Clause because it is directed to a \u201cthird-party\u201d and involves a personal account. Clarke, however, then acknowledged D.C. Circuit precedent \u2014 because that is where the subpoena would issue from \u2014 has held that \u201c[w]here the Clause applies its protection is absolute,\u201d and therefore there was some \u201clitigation risk\u201d to the subpoena. The email then concluded: \u201cYou should also notify [the Office of Deputy Attorney General] via urgent report about legal process related to Jordan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the House Report, in a May 19, 2022 email, the PIN Section repeated its recommendation that prosecutors issue an \u201curgent report\u201d to notify the Office of Deputy Attorney General (ODAG) about its intent to subpoena records related to Rep. Chip Roy. <\/p>\n<p>During a transcribed interview, when asked \u201cabout notifying ODAG, Duree said he did not have a specific recollection of the interaction,\u201d but that \u201c[i]f [PIN] told us to notify ODAG, then I feel confident that . . . someone on my team, I or someone else, would have notified ODAG.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>These details prove explosive because they indicate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-2-0-fashions-pardon-powers-in-unprecedented-manner-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Trump 2.0 fashions pardon powers in \u2018unprecedented\u2019 manner - Washington Examiner\">high-level political appointees<\/a> in the Biden administration\u2019s DOJ actually knew of \u2014 and allowed \u2014 prosecutors to subpoena records from congressional Republicans before the appointment of Smith as special counsel. And while the Arctic Frost team sought to justify the subpoenas and hide behind the PIN approval, the controlling decision in the <em>Rayburn <\/em>case established that members of Congress have a right to be given the opportunity to assert their Speech or Debate privilege and that the Speech or Debate Clause prohibits the mere <em>disclosure<\/em> of protected legislative materials. <\/p>\n<p>While case law in other circuits only protects members of Congress from the <em>use <\/em>of legislative materials in a proceeding against them, that is <strong>not<\/strong> the law in D.C., where the subpoena issued.<\/p>\n<p>The prosecutors responsible for subpoenaing both Jordan and Roy\u2019s records ignored that controlling precedent and obtained nondisclosure orders, which prevented the two congressmen from asserting their Speech or Debate rights. And then-President Biden\u2019s administration condoned that constitutional violation.<\/p>\n<p>Further, Duree would later join Special Counsel Jack Smith\u2019s team, and on January 9, 2023, according to the report, \u201cproposed a major expansion of the Biden-Harris DOJ\u2019s investigation into Congressional Republicans, advocating for a new batch of toll record subpoenas for nine Members of Congress and one staffer.\u201d Another member of Smith\u2019s team, Ray Hulser \u2014 who has his only <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/12\/29\/top-attorney-for-special-counsel-jack-smith-previously-spiked-clinton-foundation-investigation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">problems<\/a> with weaponization \u2014 \u201capproved Duree\u2019s subpoena request within an hour \u2014 before Duree told him which Members would be targeted or what specific predication made the subpoenas necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Smith\u2019s team would again seek approval from PIN for the subpoenas, with another member of that section, John Keller, again <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/07\/15\/new-docs-support-allegations-that-jack-smiths-team-violated-constitution-in-get-trump-probe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">noting<\/a> that the D.C. Circuit in <em>Rayburn <\/em>had held \u201cthe bar on compelled disclosure is absolute.\u201d However, PIN again approved the subpoenas because the \u201clitigation risk was minimal\u201d because the various members of Congress were not targets of the criminal probe \u2014 President Trump was. That pragmatic assessment does not lessen the constitutional infringement of the Speech or Debate Clause rights of members of Congress.<\/p>\n<p>With Wednesday\u2019s release we now know that PIN recommended that same course of action multiple times and also, at least before Special Counsel Smith\u2019s appointment, prosecutors were directed to seek guidance from top DOJ political appointees. Smith also appears to have alerted then-Attorney General Merrick Garland of his plans, with a January 13, 2023 \u201cAG Briefing,\u201d stating: \u201cIn the coming week or so, we intend to issue subpoenas for the toll records of certain members of Congress for the period between the 2020 election and January 20 to investigate those communications \u2014 and to establish logical evidentiary inferences regarding Trump and his surrogates\u2019 actions and intent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That Smith and the PIN Section both believed it important enough to advise the attorney general and\/or deputy attorney general of the planned subpoenas, shows they knew how significant their seizure of the toll records was. Yet, they declined to inform the judges from whom they obtained the nondisclosure orders that the subpoenas targeted records for members of Congress. That omission speaks volumes of the bad faith of the players involved, up to and including Attorney General Garland.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Margot Cleveland is an investigative journalist and legal analyst and serves as The Federalist\u2019s senior legal correspondent. Margot\u2019s work has been published at The Wall Street Journal, The American Spectator, the New Criterion, National Review Online, Townhall.com, the Daily Signal, USA Today, and the Detroit Free Press.     She is also a regular guest on nationally syndicated radio programs and on Fox News, Fox Business, and Newsmax. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize\u2014the law school\u2019s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.      Cleveland is a former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/5-media-lies-about-the-latest-special-counsel-revelations\/\" title=\"5 Media Lies About The Latest ... Revelations\">full-time university faculty member<\/a> and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. Cleveland is also of counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance.       Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland where you can read more about her greatest accomplishments\u2014her dear husband and dear son. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DOJ PIN directed urgent reports on GOP lawmakers&#8217; toll records<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":2668371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-241.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546,33651],"tags":[32502,86120,86119,66210],"class_list":["post-2668370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","category-the-western-journal","tag-biden-administration","tag-congressional-investigations","tag-gop-subpoenas","tag-phone-records"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-241.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2668370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2668370"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2668370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2668374,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2668370\/revisions\/2668374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2668371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2668370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2668370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2668370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}