Trump calls for the prosecution of Jack Smith and others in the January 6 investigation
President Trump suggested late Friday that former special counsel Jack Smith, former Attorney General Merrick Garland and other Biden administration officials “should be prosecuted” over their involvement in the investigation into the president’s alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
In a Truth Social post published shortly before his departure on his Asian trip, Trump also named former FBI Director Christopher Wray and former Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. All four officials are frequent targets of the president’s ire.
“JUST: Documents show conclusively that Christopher Wray, Jack Smith, Merrick Garland, Lisa Monaco, and other crooks from the failed Biden administration signed on to Operation Arctic Frost,” Trump wrote. “They spied on our Senators, Members and Women of Congress, and even recorded their calls. They cheated and rigged the 2020 Presidential Election. These extreme leftist lunatics should be prosecuted for their extremely illegal and immoral behavior!”
It is unclear what documents the president is referring to. The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
Earlier in October, the Senate Judiciary Committee released an unclassified document showing that the FBI analyzed the phone records of nine Republican members of Congress in 2023 during its January 6 investigation under former President Biden. Among those targeted were Senators Lindsey Graham (South Carolina), Bill Hagerty (Tennessee), and Josh Hawley (Missouri).
The “preliminary casualty analysis” conducted by an unnamed special agent was part of the bureau’s investigation into “Arctic Frost,” which was opened in April 2022 by Timothy Thibault, a former assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s field office in Washington. The investigation preceded Smith’s subsequent efforts.
Trump has often criticized Smith. Before Election Day in 2024, he said the former prosecutor should be “thrown out of the country.”
Last week, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) — another Republican whose phone records were analyzed in 2023 — and other GOP lawmakers asked the Justice Department to investigate Smith. The former special counsel later asked to be allowed to appear in public after House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) demanded his testimony.
