Overview

• A declassified FBI record dated Sept. 27, 2023 shows agents conducted “preliminary toll analysis” on limited phone records tied to calls involving Sens. Lindsey Graham, Marsha Blackburn, Ron Johnson, Josh Hawley, Cynthia Lummis, Bill Hagerty, Dan Sullivan, Tommy Tuberville, and Rep. Mike Kelly.
• Officials said investigators could see dialed numbers and where calls originated and were received, describing metadata rather than content, with records collected in 2023 after subpoenas to major carriers.
• The activity occurred under an FBI case labeled “Arctic Frost,” opened April 13, 2022 on election-law matters and later associated with Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 and elector-related investigation.
• FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino identified the CAST document during a broader review launched after Sen. Chuck Grassley’s oversight request and briefed the affected lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
• Republican senators denounced the activity as politicized surveillance and demanded accountability, while there is no public indication that criminal charges stemmed directly from these toll-analysis queries.