A Republican senator whose phone records were seized during the Biden administration announced Wednesday that she plans to file a lawsuit against officials at the Department of Justice and the FBI, alleging that the search violated her civil liberties and constitutional protections as a member of Congress.
“The infringement is deep and wide,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told Just the News.
Blackburn said the 2023 grand jury subpoena for her phone records violated her First and Fourth Amendment rights to free speech and privacy, as well as her constitutional protections under the separation of powers as a sitting lawmaker.
She also suggested the search may have breached the Stored Communications Act, noting that her carrier, Verizon, turned over data that included her geographic locations when calls were made.
The senator specifically named former Special Counsel Jack Smith, whose investigations led to two now-dismissed felony indictments against former President Donald Trump, and a specialized FBI team that analyzed phone records seized from eight U.S. senators and one House member as part of a Jan. 6–related probe code-named “Arctic Frost.”
“I can assure you this, we will be suing the Biden DOJ, Jack Smith and his CR-15 team, which, of course, has already been fired by (current FBi Director) Kash Patel, thank goodness,” Blackburn told the outlet.
“These guys just hated Donald Trump, and they hated us because we supported Donald Trump, and we were standing with Donald Trump,” she added.
Blackburn said her legal team has identified several potential areas of constitutional infringement, including violations of her personal civil liberties and her official duties as a member of Congress protected under the Constitution’s Speech and Debate Clause.
“When you look at what happened with us, it’s the 1st and the 4th amendment that was violated with the eight senators, plus our Speech and Debate Clause, our separation of powers and the Stored Communications Act, all of those were violations,” she told the outlet.
“And you know …. the common thread that runs through this is all eight were Republicans,” she added. “We all supported President Trump, and we had valid questions about the outcome of the 2020, election.”
Blackburn revealed that her lawyers have discovered her phone records were obtained much earlier than previously reported.
“One of the things that is so interesting on this is we thought that the wireless carriers received a subpoena in September (2023) for our records, but we found out that Verizon actually received that subpoena in May 2023. That was prior to the indictment of President Trump, which took place in August of 2023,” she said.
“We know that they pulled what is called the toll data, that is every call we either made or received, the duration of the call, the individual and the number that it was to and from, And then also the physical location where we were when that call was either made or received,” she added.
When asked why she might include claims under the Stored Communications Act, Blackburn said she does not believe cellular carriers have any legitimate business reason to retain or share information about her location as part of normal phone operations.
“Of course, with Verizon, my wireless carrier, they received a subpoena, and they turned the records over. They never questioned it. They never quashed or moved to quash the subpoena,” she said. “How could it not? How. Could they not think that they were turning over the records of sitting members of Congress?”
“It just shows you how Jack Smith and Arctic frost, they were so out over their skis, and they were out to get President Donald Trump, and they wanted to convict him of conspiracy. And of course, when you look at what they were doing with us, they were probably looking for obstruction or co-conspirator charges,” she added.
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