The Biden White House gave the FBI cellphones that had belonged to President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, top senators revealed as part of new evidence questioning the voracious approach the bureau took in trying to investigate Mr. Trump once he left office.
Sens. Charles E. Grassley and Ron Johnson released a series of emails showing the early development of the FBI’s probe, known as the Arctic Frost investigation. Arctic Frost would eventually become special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal probe of the once-and-future president that led to charges of mishandling classified documents and election interference.
The documents reveal an FBI that strenuously pushed the Trump probe in 2022, preparing dozens of subpoenas and planning a massive round of interviews of Trump associates as they went after a former president.
In addition to the president’s phone, the FBI also got data from cellphones used by former Attorney General William Barr, acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark and BJay Pak, a former U.S. attorney in Georgia. Agents also got search warrants to look through email accounts of Mr. Clark, several other Trump-connected lawyers and Mark Meadows, who had been White House chief of staff.
More than a dozen FBI field offices were roped into helping, the two senators said.
“The new records we are making public point to an aggressive investigation run by anti-Trump agents and prosecutors intent on using every resource available to pursue Trump and his supporters,” said Mr. Grassley, Iowa Republican, and Mr. Johnson, Wisconsin Republican.
The FBI got the Trump and Pence phones from the Biden White House. It then drafted search warrants to be able to look at the data.
The two senators sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel asking to see all FBI records related to Arctic Frost.
They also asked for a final accounting of how much the FBI spent on Arctic Frost.
“Quite simply, the public has a right to know what happened in Arctic Frost and, based on what we’ve exposed to date, the American public deserves better from its law enforcement agencies,” they said.
They said at the center of the probe was former FBI Agent Timothy Thibault, whom they described as “anti-Trump.”
The senators said Mr. Thibault broke FBI protocol by opening and approving the Trump probe on his own, and emails released Friday showed his determination to move it along.
“I’m looking forward to seeing this case progress,” Mr. Thibault said in one email released by the senators. “The case will be prioritized over all others in the branch. Thank you for your patience, it frankly took too long for us to open this.”
Mr. Thibault at the time was the assistant special agent in charge of the criminal division in the Northern Virginia regional office of the Washington field office.
His email was dated April 15, 2022.
It was officially folded into Mr. Smith’s investigation in November 2022.
He would go on to charge Mr. Trump in two cases: One accusing him of mishandling secret documents and the other accusing him of attempting to subvert the 2020 presidential election through his behavior after the voting.
Mr. Smith asked that the cases be dismissed, and he resigned his post once Mr. Trump won the 2024 election and it became clear a sitting president couldn’t be prosecuted.
Mr. Grassley and Mr. Johnson said their new information came from whistleblower disclosure of unclassified materials.
The two senators have been pursuing the FBI over its actions during the Obama, Trump and Biden years.
They previously charged that Mr. Thibault had shared sensitive, non-public information with a romantic interest of his.
