Sen. Marsha Blackburn sued former special counsel Jack Smith and the Justice Department on Wednesday, charging that the prosecutor illegally seized her phone records during his Trump investigation — proof, she says, that the federal surveillance apparatus will trample the Constitution to come after anyone in its crosshairs, sitting senator or not.
The lawsuit, filed in Nashville federal court, strikes at the heart of the question that should keep every American up at night: if the DOJ can secretly vacuum up a senator's call logs, lock her carrier out of telling her, and do it all under a prosecutor whose own appointment may have been unlawful, what protects the rest of us?
Blackburn accuses Smith of "gross abuse of power and … disregard for the Constitution's Separation of Powers, the Speech or Debate Clause, the First Amendment right of association, [and] the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures." Smith subpoenaed phone records from Blackburn and eight of her Senate colleagues — Bill Hagerty, Rick Scott, Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley, Tommy Tuberville, Ron Johnson, Dan Sullivan, Cynthia Lummis — plus Rep. Mike Kelly — as part of what was code-named the "Arctic Frost" investigation. The seizure was only revealed because Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley brought it to light last October.
Verizon handed over Blackburn's addresses, inbound and outbound call logs, text records, and payment information. A federal judge, James Boasberg, then ordered Verizon not to tell her, claiming she might destroy evidence. AT&T, facing the same subpoena, refused to comply.
"Verizon willfully handed over my call logs to the Biden FBI without hesitation, empowering Jack Smith's witch hunt targeting Republicans for political gain," Blackburn said. "It turns out that activist Judge Boasberg also ordered Verizon not to inform me of the subpoena, falsely claiming I might destroy so-called evidence. There was no criminal predicate, no justification, and no excuse for Verizon aiding Jack Smith's spying operation, especially when AT&T refused to comply under the same circumstances."
Blackburn is also asking the court to formally declare Smith's November 2022 appointment by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland illegal, and to order any of her records still in DOJ hands destroyed or returned.
The lawsuit landed one day after Smith testified before the Judiciary Committee, where he stood by his work. "Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation," Smith told lawmakers. "If asked whether to prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether that president was a Republican or a Democrat."
The New York Daily News framed the hearing as a GOP embarrassment, spotlighting Sen. Eric Schmitt's botched attempt to link Smith to a basketball game with Fani Willis — the game turned out to be a women's college matchup in Maryland, not an Atlanta Hawks contest. The Daily News used the gaffe to dismiss the entire hearing and declare Trump's guilt a settled fact. The outlet buried the phone records seizure entirely.
Meanwhile, Sen. Hagerty announced he had filed a bar complaint against Smith in Tennessee, calling him "a blatantly partisan actor" whose "prosecutorial misconduct" did real damage.
The same DOJ that secretly seized a senator's records is the one that pursued Trump, hunted J6 defendants, and has resisted accountability at every turn. Blackburn's suit forces the question into court: was Jack Smith ever lawfully empowered to do any of this, or was the entire apparatus running on authority it never legally had?
