Several Republican senators have called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to refer Special Counsel Jack Smith to the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility for investigation into his misconduct in the “Arctic Frost” probe, and to recommend his disbarment in Tennessee and New York.
In a letter dated October 17, 2025, Sens. Marsha Blackburn, Ron Johnson, Bill Hagerty, Josh Hawley, and Cynthia Lummis referenced last week’s revelation that Smith’s team secretly subpoenaed telecom companies in 2023 for their cell phone data, covering calls made between January 4 and 7, 2021, without any legal justification.
“We have yet to learn of any legal predicate for the Biden DOJ issuing subpoenas to obtain these cell phone records,” wrote the lawmakers.
They accused Smith of “trampling” constitutional protections under the Speech or Debate Clause and said the surveillance was politically driven. “To the best we can tell, Smith’s team went on this fishing expedition for one simple reason: we are Republicans who support President Trump,” the letter stated.
The senators urged Bondi to refer Smith for disbarment in Tennessee and New York, comparing his actions to abuses under J. Edgar Hoover and the DOJ’s prosecution of the late Sen. Ted Stevens. “We must ensure that we never return to these disgraceful eras,” they wrote.
