Patel Releases Report About Previous DOJ Investigation

By
Mark Stevens
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There are scandals — and then there are moments that force a nation to confront the very integrity of its democratic institutions. What was revealed Monday afternoon is not merely a story of government overreach; it is a potential constitutional crisis cloaked in the language of national security and “democracy preservation.” According to internal FBI documents reviewed by Fox News Digital, former Special Counsel Jack Smith, through his “Arctic Frost” investigation into January 6th and the 2020 election, allegedly tracked the private communications of nearly a dozen sitting Republican lawmakers — without their knowledge, and without public accountability.

The document, dated September 27, 2023, and marked CAST Assistance (referencing the FBI’s Cellular Analysis Survey Team), allegedly confirms that Smith’s team was monitoring metadata: who GOP Senators were calling, from where, and to whom those calls were going. Among the senators reportedly swept into this surveillance net are Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley, Marsha Blackburn, Ron Johnson, Bill Hagerty, and several others. Republican Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania was also reportedly surveilled.


It is not speculation — according to Fox News and senior FBI sources, this happened.

And if it did, the implications are seismic.

Senator Josh Hawley called the revelation “an abuse of power beyond Watergate, beyond J. Edgar Hoover,” and that’s not hyperbole. This isn’t an ordinary misuse of authority — it’s surveillance of sitting U.S. Senators, political opponents of the administration, carried out by a supposedly independent special counsel, in the name of justice. If proven, it constitutes a direct assault on the First Amendment, the principle of separation of powers, and the protections from unreasonable search that are the bedrock of constitutional law.


FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino is now personally briefing the impacted lawmakers — a move that signals the Bureau is taking the fallout seriously, even as public trust in federal law enforcement continues to erode. Director Kash Patel, who uncovered the document, appears to be cutting against years of institutional silence and political protectionism to expose what may be the most partisan use of federal surveillance tools since the days of COINTELPRO.

Senator Bill Hagerty did not mince words. In a public statement, he linked this current surveillance to previous instances — particularly the surveillance of the Trump transition team in 2016, which he and Senator Blackburn both participated in. “This corruption runs deep,” he said. “And it’s gone on for too long.”


Indeed, the patterns are impossible to ignore: FBI probes of Trump affiliates in 2016. Labeling concerned parents as domestic threats at school board meetings. Surveillance of Catholic parishes. And now this: a closed-door operation that monitored elected representatives engaged in deliberations about certifying an election — and all of them Republicans.

What unites these episodes is not just the overreach, but the political targeting. The line between national security concern and political convenience has been trampled. And the American people deserve answers: Who authorized the surveillance? On what grounds? Was the White House aware? Were any warrants obtained? And if not, what precedent does this set?


As the storm gathers, the Department of Justice has gone quiet. Democrats, for now, appear unwilling to comment. And the legacy media — predictably — has offered a muted response, burying what would be front-page news if the parties were reversed.

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