President Donald Trump singled out a handful of former Justice Department officials on Friday night, saying they should be prosecuted for their roles in investigating him.
Writing on his Truth Social platform, Trump said:
Just in: Documents show conclusively that Christopher Wray, Deranged Jack Smith, Merrick Garland, Lisa Monaco, and other crooked lowlifes from the failed Biden Administration, signed off on Operation Arctic Frost. They spied on Senators and Congressmen/women, and even taped their calls. They cheated and rigged the 2020 Presidential Election. These Radical Left Lunatics should be prosecuted for their illegal and highly unethical behavior!
The president did not specify which documents he was talking about, but “Arctic Frost” refers to Smith’s investigation into Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election, as well as his role in inciting the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot. Earlier this month, the Senate Judiciary Committee released an FBI document claiming that Smith “spied” on eight Republican senators as part of Smith’s “Arctic Frost investigation.”
In reality, Smith simply obtained metadata.
“The FBI in 2023
As former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Toobin noted at the time, the information was already publicly available, and Smith’s actions were to be expected, given that Trump had been communicating with Republican elected officials about possibly overturning the election.
“It’s not even news,” Toobin said. “Jack Smith cites these conversations in his report. So this is not like he was trying to keep this a secret. And remember what Smith was investigating. He was investigating Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the election through the use of fake electors in Congress.”
Smith was appointed as Special Counsel in November 2022 by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland after Trump announced his third run for president. The following year, Smith obtained indictments against Trump for the election scheme, as well as Trump’s retention of government documents after leaving office.
Lisa Monaco, whom Trump referenced, was Deputy Attorney General during Smith’s investigation. Christopher Wray was the FBI director at the time. Trump appointed him to the position in 2017.
Trump previously called for the prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and
In separate and unrelated cases, Comey and James were indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia for lying under oath and bank fraud, respectively. The indictments came after Trump ousted his handpicked U.S. Attorney, Erik Siebert, after Siebert indicated he could not muster viable cases against the two.