On January 22, 2026, Rep. Darrell Issa confronted former Special Counsel Jack Smith during a bruising House Judiciary Committee hearing, directly accusing him of targeting “political enemies” and declaring he “yield back in disgust” at Smith’s testimony. Americans watched as a senior Republican demanded answers about how and why the Biden-era probe codenamed Arctic Frost swept up the phone records of sitting lawmakers, a revelation that feels less like oversight and more like political surveillance.
The Arctic Frost operation was not a narrow, ordinary inquiry — it issued nearly 200 subpoenas and requested records tied to hundreds of Republican individuals and organizations, according to disclosures now in Congress’ hands. This was a fishing expedition of alarming scale, and it’s no surprise that lawmakers from both chambers are demanding to see the full scope of what the special counsel obtained and why.
Republicans on the committee rightly pressed the constitutional danger posed when toll data and call metadata for members of Congress were gathered under gag orders that kept targets in the dark. Collecting lawmakers’ phone logs without the chance to challenge the subpoenas risks trampling the Speech or Debate Clause and sets a chilling precedent for legislative independence if left unchecked.
Congress is not sitting idle. Senate leaders have launched aggressive oversight plans and are preparing a series of hearings to force full transparency about Arctic Frost and its justification. That is exactly what a free republic should demand when a Justice Department probe looks disturbingly like a partisan dossier come to life.
The oversight has also moved beyond rhetoric to action: subpoenas have been sent to major telecom firms to produce records identifying who was swept up in Jack Smith’s requests, including to AT&T, Verizon and Lumen. If American companies were compelled to hand over communications data on elected officials without proper legal basis, that raises grave questions about both process and culpability that must be answered publicly.
This is not a partisan temper tantrum — it’s a wake-up call. When the machinery of justice is turned into a blunt instrument to silence or intimidate political opponents, our constitutional order is endangered. Patriots and elected leaders must insist on real accountability: full document releases, sworn testimony under oath, and consequences for officials who abused their power.
Darrell Issa’s confrontation was a necessary opening shot in a broader fight to restore limits on federal power. Hardworking Americans who love liberty should stand with lawmakers who demand that the Department of Justice operate as a neutral enforcer of the law, not as a political weapon. The time for papering over abuses is over; Congress must finish what it has started and return trust in our institutions to the people they were meant to serve.
