Biden-era FBI officials pressed forward with an investigation into Republican members of Congress after top prosecutors privately agreed central allegations lacked credibility, documents obtained by Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley show.
Based largely on claims made by then-Democratic New Jersey Rep. Mikie Sherrill, the FBI launched a probe in January 2021 to assess whether several Republican members assisted individuals or groups who organized the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, records reveal.
“Operation Rampart 12 is yet another example in which Republicans were unfairly targeted and secretly subjected to an invasive investigation by the Biden DOJ and FBI,” Grassley told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“If not for my investigative work and brave whistleblowers, we wouldn’t know about FBI agents’ and DOJ prosecutors’ disgraceful efforts to try and destroy Republicans,” Grassley said. “My Democrat colleagues want to ignore these facts and evidence and defend the fired officials who participated in Biden’s lawfare. I’ll continue working to expose the widespread constitutional abuses that occurred under the Biden administration, because transparency brings accountability.”
Sherrill alleged in a Jan. 12, 2021, Facebook Live broadcast that some members of Congress led “reconnaissance” tours to map out the Capitol ahead of Jan. 6, 2021, several outlets reported at the time. With more than 30 other Democrats, she also sent a letter to Capitol security officials seeking information about “suspicious” visitors on Jan. 5.
The FBI’s “Rampart Twelve” investigation centered on allegations against Republican Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, former Republican Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks and Republican Reps. Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs of Arizona. Investigators obtained toll records for Boebert and Gosar, according to a memo.
“so michie [sic] sherrill has such important groundbreaking information that she has agreed to talk to amanda…friday,” former federal prosecutor Molly Gaston wrote in a Jan. 13, 2021 text message to another prosecutor, J.P. Cooney.
Following former special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment in 2022, Gaston and Cooney became integral parts of his team as he prosecuted President Donald Trump.
Cooney called Sherrill’s handling of the situation “embarrassing” and “appalling,” adding in the Jan. 13 text that it “makes her allegations completely incredible.”
“i hate politicians,” Gaston wrote. “hate is the wrong word. I’m disillusioned by them.”
READ:
Rampart Twelve Documents by Katelynn Richardson
Days later, Cooney texted Gaston on Jan. 16, 2021, about video footage of Boebert in the Capitol, noting there was “a maga hat group about a minute behind her but it’s a family – with kids.” Someone in the group was taking pictures but looked like a tourist, he said.
“it’s weird,” Cooney wrote, “but does not look suspicious.”
Gaston noted they still needed to “figure out what time the [Gosar] thing happened.”
“i’m telling you though — this tour/map thing has legs,” Cooney wrote. “this makes perfect sense to me … proving the member’s intent might be impossible but i am fairly confident that we are going to put a map or some other information relevant to coordinated activity in the hands of an extremist group, and trace it back to a congressional office.”
Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson said the messages “show Justice Department attorneys sought to investigate republicans no matter how spurious the allegation.”
“Smith eventually hired both J.P. Cooney and Molly Gaston, allowing them to continue their partisan work,” Johnson said. “My oversight efforts will continue to expose what was occurring in Jack Smith’s office.”
Along with allegations made by Sherrill, the FBI’s probe also looked into a congressional staffer’s claim that he heard two men say “I think Gosar will let us in,” as well as “Stop The Steal” rally organizer Ali Alexander’s claim that he developed a plan with Brooks, Gosar and Biggs to put “maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting,” records show.
The preliminary investigation was officially opened on Jan. 22, 2021, according to an email from Cooney.
Cooney reassured former FBI Agent Timothy Thibault that rules for opening “sensitive investigations” during the 2020 election did not apply to this probe because the members were not “‘declared candidates’ for Congress and there was no risk that public exposure of the preliminary investigation could influence an impending federal election.”
“Under the circumstances, the only responsible course was to open a preliminary investigation—both to swiftly determine the legitimacy of the allegations and to ensure a full written record of the FBI’s steps,” he wrote to Thibault.
House Republicans filed an ethics complaint in May 2021 against Democrats who claimed “without evidence” that members had led “reconnaissance” tours.
A Washington Field Office FBI agent sought approval in December 2021 to “move through with our proposed course of action (see June memo) and interview Boebert and Gosar, with appropriate coordination with DC USAO.” Thibault informed the agent in January 2022 that “direction from FBIHQ is to close the case.”
“These bombshell documents reveal that bad actors at the highest levels of our government and intelligence agencies targeted broad swaths of the America Right and sitting members of Congress with no evidence of wrongdoing,” Republican Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt said in a statement to the DCNF. “This fishing expedition was nothing more than a political agenda. Finally under the leadership of Chairman Grassley, and the work of this committee, we are shining a light on this corruption that the Democrats ignored under Biden, and we will not stop until there is full accountability for those involved.”
Grassley is expected to share the records during an Arctic Frost hearing on Tuesday morning.
In February, three phone company executives testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about why they turned over the records of multiple Republican members of Congress in response to secret subpoenas from Smith. Toll records for 20 current or former Republican members of Congress were subpoenaed as part of the Arctic Frost probe that became Smith’s 2020 election case against Trump, according to records previously disclosed by Grassley.
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