Networks Hide Stunning New Claims About Jack Smith’s Lawfare Against Republicans

On Wednesday, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) dropped the latest tranche of documents showing former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s January 6 investigation into President Trump not only included seizing phone records of numerous Senate Republicans, but firing off nearly 200 subpoenas against 430 Republican figures and groups. In other words, this Smith probe sure seemed to stretch well beyond the events of singular day!

In a totally, not-at-all-shocking move, the broadcast networks ABC, CBS, and NBC omitted this revelation about Operation Arctic Frost from their flagship Wednesday night and Thursday morning shows. But in an equally predictable act of news judgment, the Fox News Channel’s flagship evening newscast — Special Report with Bret Baier — was all over it:

 

Justice correspondent David Spunt told Baier that “Republicans on Capitol Hill said the Biden Justice Department went much further than previously known while investigating alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.”

Obtained through “unnamed whistleblowers,” he added Grassley “made public 197 subpoenas from then-Special Counsel Jack Smith and his team” that demanded “testimony, financial records, donor fundraising, and other communications with 430 named Republican individuals and entities.”

Adding in the fact that a previous Grassley disclosure concerned “several Republican senators say[ing] their phone calls were spied on and their phones were tapped,” Spunt gave Smith’s team room to explain themselves:

Smith’s attorney say the calls were not wiretapped. The content of the calls are unknown. In fact, it was just call log information about who called who and at what time. Smith’s attorney today tells Fox: “Jack is happy to discuss his work as special counsel and answer any questions at a public hearing just like every other special counsel investigating a president before him has done. We hope the House and Senate Judiciary Committee also agree so the American people can hear directly from him. Name the time and place, Jack will be there.”

The great Susan Ferreechio penned a must-read for The Washington Times, which began with this fiery lede: “Jaw-dropping whistleblower documents made public Wednesday show the Biden Justice Department secretly cast a massive, investigatory net over the Republican Party, and much of the surveillance appeared to be triggered by President Trump’s announcement of his third presidential campaign in November 2022.”

Ferrechio further explained (click “expand”):

At a press conference in the Capitol on Wednesday, furious Republican senators lined up to denounce what an unidentified whistleblower had uncovered: Special prosecutor Jack Smith and his legal team, under operation Arctic Frost, issued 197 subpoenas seeking records and communications of more than 430 individuals and organizations, all of whom appeared to be Republican.

Those targeted included Stephen Miller, Dan Scavino, Jared Kushner and Lara Trump, who all worked in the first Trump administration or the Trump campaign. Additional subpoenas were issued to individuals and businesses seeking statistical data and analysis relating to Republican fundraising and individual communications with a slew of national media outlets, including CBS and Fox News. The phone records of 11 members of Congress were secretly subpoenaed.

(....)

The whistleblower documents expose the zeal within the Smith investigation to “nail” Mr. Trump with criminal wrongdoing more than two years after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol and shortly after the launch of Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign.

Instead of giving this even a news brief, ABC’s World News Tonight had a 16-second brief on an Illinois police officer performing the Heimlich Maneuver, the CBS Evening News had a full story warning three monkeys infected with herpes were on the loose in rural Mississippi, and NBC’s Today had a first-hour segment about a “debate over” whether neighborhood Halloween displays are becoming too scary.

To see the relevant FNC transcript from October 29, click “expand.”

FNC’s Special Report with Bret Baier
October 29, 2025
6:22 p.m. Eastern [TEASE]

[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Next; Election Investigation Details]

BRET BAIER: Up next, new details about the investigation into an alleged effort to overturn the 2020 election, what they’re finding out.

(....)

6:29 p.m. Eastern

[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Jacked Up; New Details on Special Counsel 2020 Election Probe]

BRET BAIER: Tonight, we are learning important new details about the scope of an investigation into alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Republicans say the Special Counsel took extraordinary methods to target Republicans, more than 400 of them. Correspondent David Spunt is in Washington with details tonight. Good evening, David.

DAVID SPUNT: Bret, good evening. Just hours ago, Republicans on Capitol Hill said the Biden Justice Department went much further than previously known while investigating alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. That probe known as Operation Arctic Frost. Senator Chuck Grassley, today made public 197 subpoenas from then-Special Counsel Jack Smith and his team. The subpoenas made their way to Grassley through unnamed whistleblowers. He says the subpoenas requested testimony, financial records, donor fundraising, and other communications with 430 named Republican individuals and entities. The list includes the President’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter-in-law Lara Trump.

SENATOR CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-IA): Contrary to what Smith has said publicly, this was clearly a fishing expedition. If this had happened to Democrats, they would be as rightly outraged as we are outraged.

SPUNT: Bret, as part of his probe, several Republican senators say their phone calls were spied on and their phones were tapped. But Smith’s attorney say the calls were not wiretapped. The content of the calls are unknown. In fact, it was just call log information about who called who and at what time. Smith’s attorney today tells Fox: “Jack is happy to discuss his work as special counsel and answer any questions at a public hearing just like every other special counsel investigating a president before him has done. We hope the House and Senate Judiciary Committee also agree so the American people can hear directly from him. Name the time and place, Jack will be there.”