During a hearing of the Senate Judicial Commission on Tuesday, republican legislators repeatedly denounced Jack Smith, the former special advisor, and the Biden administration for having taken the telephone recordings of more than half a dozen republican senators to determine who they had spoken just before and after the riot of January 6, 2021 in the Capitol.
The attacks constituted an essential element of the republicans’ response while the Democrats of the Panel questioned the general prosecutor Pam Bondi on the growing pressure of President Trump on the Ministry of Justice to continue his political enemies. The Republicans used telephone recordings to say that the Biden administration had politicized the department, even if the role of the survey recordings is still very unknown, and there is no evidence that the White House Biden influenced the investigation.
The Republicans pressed Ms. Bondi to investigate and punish any person associated with the survey, such as FBI agents who examined the telephone data of nine republican legislators to determine who they called, who called them, and when and where the calls were made.
Analysis of telephone toll recordings is a current investigation tactic, even if there are political debates occasionally on the moment and the way in which this data must be collected. This information recorded on tolls do not include the content of the conversations, which would require electronic listening approved by the court.
The Republicans revealed an internal FBI document on Monday showing that the toll surveys had been collected in September 2023, shortly after Mr. Smith charged Mr. Trump for conspiracy and other crimes linked to January 6.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Charles E. Grassley, republican of Iowa, described this decision as a politically motivated “spying” and said that there was no factual basis to justify the examination of the legislators’ telephone recordings at the time of the riot by the supporters of Mr. Trump.
One of the senators whose telephone recordings were taken with a summons to appear before a large jury, Lindsey Graham de Caroline du Sud, broke out during the audience on the issue.
“Can you tell me why my telephone statements”, taken at the time he was chairman of the committee, “were sought by the agents of Jack Smith?” Asked Mr. Graham. “Why did they ask me who I called and what I was doing from January 4 to 7?”
He then asked Ms. Bondi if she thought it was an “abuse of power”.
The Attorney General refused to answer, but said that Mr. Smith had “wasted $ 50 million” in order to “put President Trump in prison”.
Another republican legislator whose telephone statements were examined during this four -day period was Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, who falsely said that the FBI document showed that agents had engaged in telephone listening.
“The FBI put my phone on listening,” said Hawley angry.
Grassley and other legislators hesitated when they were asked if they were planning to call Mr. Smith as a witness to discuss his investigation, saying that they were planning to leave the director of the FBI, Kash Patel, conduct his own investigation. During the hearing, Ms. Bondi said that she “could not discuss the question of whether an investigation was underway” on this case.
