Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy expressed outrage on Tuesday over former special counsel Jack Smith allegedly monitoring the communications of multiple Republican senators.
While Kennedy was not on the list of those reportedly affected, Smith allegedly monitored the phone calls and personal messages of Republican senators, including Josh Hawley of Missouri, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, during his probe of President Donald Trump’s efforts to contest the 2020 presidential election outcome, Fox News reported on Monday. Kennedy said on Fox Business’ “The Bottom Line” that he was horrified by the allegations and demanded answers.
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“When I first heard about this story, I thought it was satire. I thought it was some nonsense on TikTok. I’m appalled. It’s unconscionable. It really is breathtaking,” Kennedy said. “This is a special counsel of the Department of Justice who sought and received the phone records of eight sitting United States senators. The telephone companies just turned them over.”
“We have no idea what the predicate was — why the FBI and the Justice Department and Mr. Smith were asking for the records,” he continued. “We only found out about it because of a whistleblower. I’m shocked that Smith — I thought he was smarter than this. I mean, I’ve got rocks in my driveway that are smarter than this.”
Kennedy called for “a separate hearing” featuring testimony from Smith, former Attorney General Merrick Garland and former FBI Director Christopher Wray.
“Mr. Smith may plead the Fifth Amendment. If I were he, I probably would, because this is serious as four heart attacks and stroke,” he said. “This is the sort of thing that happens in a country whose Powerball jackpot is 287 chickens and a goat. This doesn’t happen in America.”
Kennedy said the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) plan to investigate the allegations. He added that if they choose to prosecute, the Senate Judiciary Committee — on which he sits — might need to “back off” rather than hold a hearing.
“We’re going to get to the bottom of this and I can promise you this — I’ve talked to all eight of the senators,” Kennedy said. “You’re going to see some civil lawsuits filed, particularly against these telephone companies who just willingly turned over the records without trying to quash any subpoena that they got.”
“I’m not telling them whether to prosecute someone or if … it ought to be this person or that person. I’m telling them to follow the law,” he added. “Follow the law. And I want to know why Jack Smith thought that he could go seek the phone records of eight sitting United States senators. I want to know.”
The monitoring occurred as part of the Arctic Frost probe and allegedly involved calls regarding plans to challenge the certification of 2020 electoral votes, Fox News reported.
“It is a disgrace that I have to stand on Capitol Hill and reveal this — that the FBI was once weaponized to track the private communications of U.S. lawmakers for political purposes,” FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino told Fox News Digital. “That era is over.”
Moreover, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa posted a document from the FBI on X Monday including the list of senators who were allegedly targeted.
“BIDEN FBI WEAPONIZATION = WORSE THAN WATERGATE,” Grassley wrote.
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