Hearings to examine Arctic Frost, focusing on conspiracy and coordination.

I will call the hearing this hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution to order. Today's hearing topic is on Arctic Frost: Conspiracy and Coordination Against President Trump and the American Right. I'll make a opening statement and then ranking member Senator Welch and then Senator Grassley has some comments and then ranking member Durbin as well. Today the Senate Judiciary Committee meets to examine Operation Arctic Frost in the broader campaign of lawfare against President Trump, his allies, his lawyers, Republican organizations, members of Congress, and the American right. This hearing is not about relitigating the 2020 election. And it's not about saying anyone is above the law. And it's not about asking for special treatment for any political figure. It's about something more basic and far more dangerous. Whether the coercive powers of the federal government were used as a political weapon against the opposition. In this country law enforcement is supposed to investigate crimes. It's not supposed to investigate political movements. It's not supposed to map the opposition. It's not supposed to use subpoenas, search warrants, non-disclosure orders, telecom records, bank records, device searches, and secrecy tools to build a profile of one side of American politics. But that is what the evidence increasingly suggests happened here. The Biden administration was not just investigating a crime. They were seeking to dismantle a political movement. The American people deserve to know what Arctic Frost really was. Arctic Frost and the effort to take down the American right was broader, darker, and far more dangerous than anything we've seen in modern political history. The Biden administration launched a whole of government effort to identify, intimidate, bankrupt, and jail the people and institutions that made up President Trump's political world. It looks like a dragnet, a fishing expedition. It reached President Trump. It reached his lawyers. It reached former officials. It reached Republican organizations. It reached conservative institutions. It reached communications records. It reached members of Congress. It reached people and groups whose real offense appears to have been associating with President Trump and the American right. And today, as part of this hearing, we're releasing new documents that make this even more clear. One set of documents shows Jack Smith's prosecutors discussing how to get around speech and debate protections as they considered how to obtain information involving Republican members of Congress. These are not abstract constitutional questions. The speech and debate clause exists to protect the independence of the judiciary of the legislative branch from executive intimidation. Yet here we have prosecutors looking at Republican members and asking in effect how close they can get. In those messages, prosecutors discussed cloud data, phone records, notice, and whether they could, quote, "get the cloud not notify and do the search without consulting the member," end quote. That should alarm every member of this body regardless of party and also the American people. Another set of documents shows communications between the Biden White House and Fani Willis's team in Georgia. Those records show Fulton County prosecutors reaching out to the White House counsel's office as they sought to interview former executive former executive office of the president officials and White House and the White House facilitating the executive privilege process. And in one remarkable email, a Biden White House official reacts to Fani Willis by saying, "Fani Willis is an icon. I can't help but to stand." Let me say that again. The Biden White House was gushing over Fani Willis being an icon. That is the language of political fandom. I wonder if the Biden officials found her embezzlement scheme iconic. I wonder if they stand Fani's removal and disqualification from the Georgia election case without any criminal conviction. So when we talk about coordination, we're not speaking in hypotheticals. We're talking about documents that the committee is releasing today. We are talking about records. We're talking about the machinery of government turned in one direction. Look at the timeline. The Biden White House helped facilitate access to President Trump and Vice President Pence's government phones. White House deputy counsel Jonathan Su personally assisted the FBI in obtaining access to those phones as Arctic Frost was heating up. When the investigation expanded, it merged with the DOJ Inspector General's work. It swept in lawyers, former officials, devices, email accounts, iCloud accounts, the political organizations. It became the foundation for Jack Smith's case. At the same time, Fani Willis's office in Georgia was pursuing its own prosecution. Her team coordinated with the Biden White House on executive privilege issues. Willis's lover and taxpayer funded outside counsel Nathan Wade billed Fulton County for an interview with DC White House with quote, "interview with DC White House," end quote, on November 18, 2022, the same day Jack Smith was appointed special counsel. Then within weeks of Jack Smith's appointment and the White House contact with Wade, Matthew Colangelo, who was the number three top official in the Biden Justice Department, went to the Manhattan District Attorney's office where Alvin Bragg brought a case against President Trump and it was revived. Federal investigators, a special counsel, the Biden White House, Fani Willis in Georgia, Alvin Bragg in New York, Matthew Colangelo deployed from DOJ to Manhattan. Jonathan Su helping facilitate access to Trump world records, Jack Smith prosecutors discussing how to work around speech or debate protections. Luckily, the American people were wise enough to see this for what it was. A coordinated campaign of lawfare against President Trump and the American right. They tried to bankrupt President Trump. They tried to deplatform and delegitimize him. They tried to imprison him. They tried to throw him off the ballot. And after years of demonizing him, there were two assassination attempts against him. The American people sat in the jury box and rendered their own verdict on November 2024. It wasn't acquittal. But the effort to get Trump was not simply an investigation of alleged conduct. It was an effort to map a movement. And that's what makes Arctic Frost so dangerous. The Democrats knew they wouldn't get a criminal conviction on Turning Point USA, Republican Attorneys General Association, and America First Legal. But convictions weren't the point. The process was the punishment. The subpoena was the punishment. The search warrant was the punishment. The non-disclosure order was the punishment. The legal bill was the punishment. The professional threat was the punishment. The years of uncertainty were the punishment. The ideological capture state bar going after your ability to practice in the legal profession was the punishment. The government does not have to convict you to ruin you. It can drag you through years of legal process, force you to hire lawyers, threaten your livelihood, expose your associations, and send a warning to everyone around you. Represent the wrong client, work on the wrong case, donate to the wrong organization, serve the wrong president, and you're next. This is not equal justice under the law. That is political discipline by legal process. And to be clear, this hearing is not about saying anyone is above the law. But law enforcement is supposed to investigate crimes. It is not supposed to investigate political identities. It is not supposed to treat opposition lawyers, donors, staff, advocates, elected officials, and institutions as a target set. A campaign can do opposition research. A party can build a political file. But when the FBI and the Department of Justice do it with subpoenas, gag orders, device searches, telecom records, bank records, and secrecy tools, that isn't politics. That's state power. And when state power is aimed at one political movement, it becomes political surveillance by legal process. A republic cannot survive legal attrition against the opposition. That is not the rule of law. That is regime protection. So today this committee will ask basic questions. Who authorized this? How far did it go? Why were these records sought? Why were there secrecy orders used? Why were prosecutors discussing ways around speech or debate protections? Why was the Biden White House communicating with Fani Willis's team? What was Nathan Wade doing at the White House the same day Jack Smith was appointed? Why did senior Biden DOJ officials end up helping lead the Manhattan case? And what must Congress do to ensure that this never happens again? That argument is not only wrong, it's dangerous. There is a fundamental difference between weaponizing the government and holding the weaponizers accountable. Weaponizing government means using subpoenas, search warrants, secrecy orders, prosecutions, and federal power to punish your political opponents. Holding the weaponizers accountable means exposing that abuse, demanding answers, and restoring the rule of law. Weaponizing government means turning law enforcement into a political weapon. Oversight means Congress doing its constitutional duty to make sure that that weapon is never aimed at the American people again. That is why this hearing matters. Because if the government can secretly map, burden, and punish the political opposition, then political opposition in America is tolerated only until it becomes effective. And if Congress cannot investigate that, then oversight is dead. Accountability is dead. And the weaponizers win. And we will not let that happen. Senator Welch."