The Justice Department acquired 4,782 checks as part of their election case against Trump, dubbed ‘Arctic Frost.’
Former Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed at least 4,782 political donations to President Donald Trump from Americans across the country between September 2019 and August 2023, Senator Chuck Grassley revealed during a Tuesday hearing featuring the former special counsel.
The checks — which Smith’s team acquired as part of their election case against Trump, dubbed “Arctic Frost” — contained donors’ personal information, including their home addresses, bank account and routing numbers, and signatures. Some of the subpoenaed donations were for as little as $1. Grassley revealed the evidence while questioning Smith during Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary hearing and followed up with a press release containing further details.
During former President Joe Biden’s administration, Smith brought two cases against Trump: The first accused him of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, and the second involved him keeping classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Smith resigned from his position nine days before Trump was sworn in as president again; both cases against Trump have been dismissed.
As part of the FBI’s investigation into the 2020 election, agents accessed toll records, which show who a given individual spoke with on the phone but not the contents of their calls, for 16 members of Congress. He also subpoenaed records from 87 Trump White House phones, which captured records from calls between government sources and dozen of news outlets.
The political donations Grassley described were obtained as part of Smith’s investigation, which focused on whether Trump defrauded donors by raising money under the false pretext that the resulting donations would help Trump’s team overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Grassley included a redacted 885-page document including each check obtained by the FBI. A large portion of the checks were written after former President Biden had been re-elected.
Evidence taken from the checks did not result in formal charges. Grassley argued that Smith overstepped his authority in collecting the personal information of thousands of Trump supporters and suggested that the investigation into alleged fraud on the part of Trump fundraisers was a fishing expedition.
Addressing Smith as he sat on the committee’s witness stand, Grassley said, “No matter what you say, there is no legitimate basis for what you did.” He added, looking at “donations to Republican groups wasn’t necessary to your investigation.”
While Republicans spent the hearing attacking Smith as a partisan intent on persecuting Trump, Democrats focused on Trump’s role in encouraging a mob to ransack the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Democratic Senator Corey Booker told press during the hearing that the FBI’s activity through the investigation, from searching political donations to phone logs, was justified. “This prosecutor went where the evidence led him,” Booker said. He added that the Judiciary Committee should “focus on ensuring there is no interference with [the 2026] election — not trying to re-litigate what we all know, which is that Donald Trump tried to steal the 2020 election and got caught on tape doing it.”
On the other hand, Senator Ted Cruz told press he believes “Jack Smith did irreparable damage” to the DOJ’s legacy of being apolitical. “He gleefully engaged in a partisan witch hunt that targeted the American people and Republicans, and amazingly, he feels no regrets,” Cruz said.
Charles Hilu contributed reporting.