Files Reveal FBI’s Expansive Probe into Trump and Republican Groups

By Staff, Agencies

Newly unclassified documents have revealed that at least 92 Republican-linked individuals and organizations were targeted in an FBI investigation launched under the Biden administration into alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The probe, code-named Arctic Frost, began in April 2022 and involved the FBI working alongside other agencies. According to the files, it served as the basis for former special counsel Jack Smith to bring criminal charges against Donald Trump, who has since returned to the presidency.

The documents describe Arctic Frost as investigating a “multifaceted conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election so that former President Trump could remain in office”.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley [R-Iowa], who disclosed the records during a hearing on Tuesday, said the inquiry quickly broadened to Republican organizations, including the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA. Kirk was killed earlier this month while speaking at Utah Valley University.

Grassley alleged that the FBI sought to politically investigate groups such as the Republican National Committee, the Republican Attorneys General Association, and Trump-affiliated political organizations.

“Arctic Frost wasn’t just a case to politically investigate Trump,” he said. “It was a vehicle by which partisan FBI agents and Department of Justice prosecutors could achieve their partisan ends and improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus”.

Trump reacted on Truth Social, denouncing Smith and the Biden administration over what he described as a corrupt effort to weaponize the Justice Department.

“They tried to force Charlie [Kirk], and many other people and movements, out of business. They weaponized the Justice Department against Sleepy Joe Biden’s political opponents, including ME!” he wrote.

Smith, who resigned before Trump’s inauguration, defended his actions, insisting the investigation and resulting charges were justified. Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly argued the true aim of Arctic Frost was to derail his 2024 campaign.