Merrick Garland, Chris Wray signed off on Arctic Frost probe that targeted GOP groups, spied on senators, documents show
WASHINGTON — Top Biden administration officials personally signed off on an FBI investigation that would go on to target nearly 100 Republican-linked groups or entities — and may have even “spied” on members of Congress.Former Attorney General Merrick Garland, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and FBI Director Christopher Wray’s signatures all appear on an April 4, 2022, document authorizing the bureau’s “Arctic Frost” probe that was released Thursday by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).Grassley accused the Biden administration of having “unleashed unchecked govt power at the highest levels” in a bombshell X post on the disclosures before vowing: “My oversight will continue.”The FBI’s Washington Field Office requested the senior officials’ authorization before looking into “an apparent effort to obstruct Congress’ certification of the Electoral College” and “fraudulent certificates of electors’ votes were submitted to the Archivist of the United States, purporting to represent the actual elector votes from the states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin,” the files show.“Open source reporting and public statements made by individuals closely associated with Donald J.Trump, Inc.
(Trump Campaign) present an articulable factual basis indicating the existence of a federal crime, and thus the FBI seeks to open a full investigation,” according to the four-page memo written by Wray.The FBI boss — who resigned one day before Trump returned to office as the 47th president — sent the missive to Garland, who signed it April 5, 2022.“Merrick, I recommend you approve,” Monaco scrawled beneath her boss’s signature line.Arctic Frost would eventually provide investigative material to special counsel Jack Smith for his indictment of Trump charging unlawful efforts to reverse Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory — but prominent donors, allies and even sitting senators were also swept...