1 hour ago
1
FBI Director Kash Patel announced Tuesday that the bureau has dismantled the unit of agents responsible for tracking the phone calls of US senators under former President Joe Biden.
“They tracked the communications of GOP Senators. They weaponized law enforcement against the American people. That era is over,” Patel wrote on X.
“We fired those who acted unethically, dismantled the corrupt CR-15 squad, and launched an investigation,” the FBI director added. “Transparency and accountability aren’t slogans, they’re promises kept.”
The CR-15 unit was one of three federal public corruption squads run out of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, according to NBC News, and was deeply involved in the FBI’s Biden-era “Arctic Frost” investigation into 2020 election meddling.
The Arctic Frost probe was launched in April 2022 and taken over by former special counsel Jack Smith later that year.
It examined efforts by President Trump and his allies to challenge the 2020 election results, including by furnishing an alternative slate of electors.
Previously released documents show CR-15 agents were involved in the 2022 investigation and arrest of White House aide Peter Navarro, and that the squad obtained two phones belonging to Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence from Biden White House officials that same year.
The CR-15 squad was reportedly shuttered by the Washington Field Office back in May, according to NBC News, which reported at the time that special agents assigned to the unit were being reassigned as part of a broader reorganization.
Patel’s announcement comes one day after Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released a September 2023 FBI document showing the bureau had conducted “preliminary toll analysis on limited toll records” of eight sitting senators.
The specific reasons for the espionage of the sitting lawmakers are not clear, but the senators targeted were Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), as well as Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.)
The lightly redacted document’s case ID is labeled, “ARCTIC FROST — Election Law Matters — SENSITIVE INVESTIGATIVE MATTER — CAST,” with “CAST” referring to the FBI’s cellular analysis team.
It is believed that the FBI was collecting records of whom the lawmakers had called and at what time rather than tapping their phones.
“If heads don’t roll in this town, nothing changes,” Grassley said Monday, vowing to continue his investigation into Biden-era FBI probes.
English (US)