Blackburn, 8 Other GOP Lawmakers Blast Biden-Era FBI for Tracking Their Phone Calls
Senate Communications Subcommittee member Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., praised the FBI on Monday night for investigating claims that during the Biden administration, the bureau and then-Special Counsel Jack Smith tracked her phone calls and those of eight other GOP lawmakers as part of a probe into the Jan. 6 Capitol siege. Fox News reported that in 2023 the FBI circulated a memo outlining the Jan. 6 team’s “analysis on limited” records of communications by Blackburn and the other Republicans, including current Senate Communications members Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming. The Fox News report indicated that the FBI tracked the phone numbers that lawmakers called and the locations of the callers and recipients.
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“The FBI, under [former President] Joe Biden’s watch, exercised authority that it did not have,” Blackburn said. “Now we know they weaponized America’s top law enforcement agency to spy on Republican U.S. Senators who support” President Donald Trump. The FBI “was rotten to the core under [Biden and ex-Director] Chris Wray’s leadership, and I will not let this stand.” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa, another of the affected Republicans, said during a news conference that the FBI’s activities were a “violation of personal property and people’s rights and the law and their constitutional rights.”