President Donald Trump last night on social media accused former FBI Director Christopher Wray, DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco of signing off on Operation Arctic Frost, which he said constituted spying and taping phone calls of members of Congress, and rigging the 2020 presidential election.
Trump added that they “should be prosecuted for their illegal and highly unethical behavior.”
Politico’s senior legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney responded to the President’s claims by writing: “Trump says Merrick Garland, Lisa Monaco and Jack Smith rigged the 2020 election … while he was president and none of them were in power. They also managed to ‘tape’ lawmakers’ calls before the Biden administration began. Quite clearly, none of that happened.”
Note: Garland was sworn in as Attorney General in March 2021, and Monaco was sworn in the next month.
Trump says Merrick Garland, Lisa Monaco and Jack Smith rigged the 2020 election … while he was president and none of them were in power. They also managed to “tape” lawmakers’ calls before the Biden administration began.
Quite clearly, none of that happened. pic.twitter.com/blBaYdnavn
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) October 25, 2025
Cheney added: “Also, Jack Smith did not sign off on Arctic Frost. He was still working in Europe. The others, quite obviously, would have had to sign off on an investigation of a former president’s campaign. Would have been weirder if they did not.”
Note: In 2018, Smith was named to a four-year term as chief prosecutor for the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, investigating war crimes in the Kosovo War. He was appointed to a second term in May 2022, before stepping down in November 2022, when Garland appointed him special counsel to oversee the criminal investigations into Trump’s actions regarding the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack, and his handling and storage of classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
He’s 100% talking about, and badly mischaracterizing, those records.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) October 25, 2025
Punchbowl co-founder John Bresnahan replied to Cheney: “I believe Trump is talking about when the FBI obtained the phone records of 8 GOP senators & 1 House member from the Jan. 6 period. Those record were subpoenaed in 2023. No phone calls were taped.”
Cheney replied: “He’s 100% talking about, and badly mischaracterizing, those records.”
[Note: Cheney put ‘tape’ in quotes because while Smith looked at phone activity records, there is no indication he taped Republican lawmakers’ calls, as some in the GOP have insinuated.]
I’ve been a prosecutor. There’s a huge difference between wiretaps and what were called “pen registers,” which only provide number called and length of call. If you don’t know the difference, you don’t belong on the Judiciary Committee.https://t.co/lajrXbKwk7
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) October 22, 2025
It’s not the first time recently that Trump has accused people and agencies of plotting against him during the Biden administration while citing dates and events that occurred before the Biden administration began.
Below Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) noted that “the Biden FBI” Trump refers to on January 6, 2021 is actually, of course, the Trump FBI, as Trump was President at the time.
Dumb Dumb Donnie forgot he was president on January 6. pic.twitter.com/ExPBazlQqt
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) October 12, 2025