Posted on 10/25/2025 5:44:46 PM PDT by Red Badger
President Trump late Friday pushed for several Biden-era Justice Department officials to be prosecuted over an FBI investigation into the fallout of the 2020 election.
In a Truth Social post, Mr. Trump accused four high-ranking officials — former Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, special counsel Jack Smith and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco — of signing off on an FBI probe in which investigators allegedly looked at nine Republican lawmakers' phone records.
"These Radical Left Lunatics should be prosecuted for their illegal and highly unethical behavior!" the president wrote. He did not specify what crimes he believes they committed.
The message marks the latest instance of Mr. Trump urging the prosecution of people he has singled out as political foes. Last month, he pushed Attorney General Pam Bondi to look into former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff. Since then, Comey and James have been criminally indicted.
The GOP-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee revealed earlier this month that the FBI obtained phone data for about eight GOP senators and one GOP representative in 2023 as part of Arctic Frost, an investigation into Mr. Trump and his allies' attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
Earlier this week, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who chairs the judiciary panel, released documents that appeared to indicate Wray, Garland and Monaco approved the opening of the Arctic Frost probe in the spring of 2022. Later that year, Garland appointed Smith to independently oversee the criminal investigations into Mr. Trump.
In Friday's post, Mr. Trump alleged the four former officials "spied on Senators and Congressmen/women, and even taped their calls" — though the Judiciary Committee said in a statement earlier this month the records obtained by the FBI didn't include the content of calls. Instead, the data covered who the lawmakers called and when, and the length of their calls.
The president also claimed — without evidence — they "cheated and rigged the 2020 Presidential Election."
CBS News has reached out to representatives for Smith, Garland and Monaco for comment.
Grassley excoriated the FBI over its handling of Arctic Frost earlier this month, calling the revelations about lawmakers' phone records "disturbing and outrageous" and part of a pattern of "weaponization" that was "arguably worse than Watergate."
Smith's attorneys called his actions "entirely lawful, proper and consistent with established Department of Justice policy" in a letter to Grassley earlier this week.
The phone records that were scrutinized by the FBI covered several days both before and after Jan. 6, 2021, when Mr. Trump pressed lawmakers to vote against certifying former President Joe Biden's election win. The gambit was unsuccessful as Congress ended up voting to certify, but the process was interrupted by rioting at the Capitol.
Mr. Trump was charged by Smith's team in August 2023 for conspiring to overturn the results, but the case was abandoned after Mr. Trump's win the following year because of a Justice Department legal opinion that states sitting presidents cannot face federal prosecution.
Smith's investigation delved into phone calls between lawmakers and the president on the evening of Jan. 6, which Smith alleged were part of a last-ditch attempt to talk congressional Republicans into blocking Biden's victory. The 2023 indictment against Mr. Trump lists several attempts by him and his alleged co-conspirators to reach lawmakers by phone. It argued the president "attempted to exploit the violence and chaos at the Capitol by calling lawmakers to convince them, based on knowingly false claims of election fraud, to delay the certification."
Last year, a final report penned by Smith also pointed to phone calls placed by Mr. Trump and members of his circle. It cited toll records from two unindicted co-conspirators who are unnamed, one of them widely believed to be Rudy Giuliani.
Mr. Trump has lashed out at the federal officials who investigated him in the past.
His legal team has asked the Justice Department to pay him about $230 million to settle federal damage claims over two investigations into him, CBS News confirmed this week. Those claims focus on the Trump-Russia probe from his first term and the criminal case against Mr. Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents, which was pursued by Smith.
And a federal watchdog office launched an investigation into Smith for alleged illegal political activity earlier this year. Smith's attorneys called the claims "imaginary and unfounded."
Totally agree with the president. These people need to pay for what they did.
If you did nothing illegal, nothing to worry about. Remember, no one is above the law.
Good luck with Blondi at the helm.
Now, please, do mayorkus for breaking all our immigration laws.
And facilitating both the invasion and drug and human trafficking.
Please.
But, Donald J. Trump colluding with Russia and attempting, Nazi that he is, an insurrection on Jan. 6?
“Let’s roll with it!”
When Mueller was appointed to investigate Russian interference, Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein issued two memorandums to Robert Mueller, providing his authorization to investigate, and the scope of the investigation. Issuing two separate memos was not a normal occurrence.
The first memo was dated May 17, 2017, and outlined the scope of Team Mueller's authorized investigation in the broadest terms. The second memo, dated August 2, 2017 expanded Mueller's mandate beyond allegations of Russian election interference.
"Because of this second memo, Paul Manafort's lawyers moved to have his initial and the subsequent superseding indictments for business dealings years ago dismissed because, among other reasons, Mueller had no legal authority beyond probing Russian election interference in the 2016 election when he was appointed by Rosenstein on May 17, 2017."
How many such memos did Garland send to Smith outlining what authority Smith had, and his scope of investigation? As the Attorney General who illegally appointed Smith, he would have been required to authorize Smith to investigate President Trump, along with the detailed scope of his investigations, ie., classified document and January 6th investigations.
The memos that Garland issued to Smith, need to be declassified and released without redactions, especially to see if Garland authorized Smith to spy on Republican members of Congress, and what other illegal orders he gave him.
President Trump shouldn’t have to keep ‘cracking the proverbial whip’ to get the Atty. Gen. to pick up the pace, but it is a fact that some legal procedures do take time, even in favorable administrations.
I’m a little surprised at how public the president is in expressing his dissatisfaction with how the prosecutions are now being handled. But then, Trump does things his own way, whenever possible. About this, I trust his judgement.
**I haven’t heard a peep from Dan Bongino in weeks.
Is he still working for Atty. Gen. Bondi?
Dan is still there, working on FBI stuff.................
They claimed with no evidence.
Really tired if that phrase.
If Wray and Brennan were so darn smart, why did they not know to be careful whose toes you step on today as they may be connected to the ass you kiss tomorrow.
If they broke the law they should be prosecuted. Let a jury decide innocence or guilt!
I’m wondering how much longer Pam Bondi will jack President Trump around on seriously pursuing justice on the deep state criminal cabal. I think she’s scared to death of the deep state’s wet works teams and that’s understandable, but if she’s not going to do her job then President Trump needs to replace her while he still has a chance to do so.
This....is what I voted for!
You seem to have a shallow grasp of how law enforcement works.
Bondi is the AG, the spokesperson for Justice. Her staff of 1000’s of lawyers are working on building solid cases to bring forward.
You just can’t charge & prosecute someone you don’t like.
This tangled web took years to build, it’s not coming apart in days or weeks.
“ He did not specify what crimes he believes they committed.”
Golly gee, CBS, that didn’t seem to bother you four years ago.
EC
Thank you. Finally someone sane.
Thank you!
The Tik-Tok ers think everything happens in 5 minutes, between commercials. They have unreal expectations of Bondi, and the process.
AG Bondi is doing a phenomenal job on so many fronts, it’s hard to keep up.
I’m willing to cut her some slack...3+ more years, if it takes that long.
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