Court Official Defends Gag Orders In Arctic Frost Probe

A senior federal court administrator is defending the secretive gag orders signed during the FBI’s Arctic Frost investigation, saying Chief Judge James Boasberg likely did not know the subpoenas involved sitting members of Congress.

According to Fox News, the explanation came from Robert Conrad Jr., director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley.

The letter responded to demands from Grassley, Sen. 👤Ron Johnson, and Rep. 👤Jim Jordan for answers about why Boasberg approved one-year non-disclosure orders preventing phone companies from alerting lawmakers that their records had been subpoenaed.

Conrad wrote that he could not speak to the specific subpoenas or gag orders because much of the material remains sealed.

However, he said he could clarify how such requests were typically handled during the Arctic Frost period.

According to Conrad, the Department of Justice routinely requested non-disclosure orders without attaching the underlying subpoena.

Those requests usually identified accounts only by a number or similar marker. As a result, he said, “applications would not reveal whether a particular phone number belonged to a member of Congress.”