FIRST ON FOX: A new memo obtained by Fox News Digital alleges that former President Joe Biden’s Justice Department collected information on hundreds of thousands of Republican voters and donors, including the names and home addresses of people who purchased red MAGA hats and Trump memorabilia.
The memo is part of an update from Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and his investigation into former special counsel Jack Smith and his Arctic Frost probe, which was launched by Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2022 to investigate efforts to overturn results of the 2020 election.
Grassley has been diving into Arctic Frost since last year, releasing a drip feed of whistleblower reports on the investigation that led to Smith testifying before the Judiciary Committee last month.
EXPLOSIVE NEW REPORT PUTS JACK SMITH BACK IN HOT SEAT AS JIM JORDAN ALLEGES HE TRIED TO ‘SWAY’ 2024 ELECTION
The latest update found that Smith’s special counsel office and the DOJ “obtained spreadsheets containing Republican campaign donors, supporters, and detailed personal voter information in various formats, totaling over 639,000 individuals, at minimum,” Grassley said in the memo.
“Out of those, over 148,000 rows are identified in the spreadsheets as donors,” he continued. “The donors generally contributed small-dollar amounts.”
Smith also sought and obtained information on the sales of red MAGA hats and Trump memorabilia, which Grassley noted included “individual purchasers and shipping addresses for home delivery.”
“This is in addition to collecting a catalog of Trump campaign products including these red hats, T-shirts, mugs, and door mats,” Grassley said. “This further illustrates the extensive scope of irrelevant and personally invasive records obtained by Smith which were shared with FBI agents.”
The data gathered on the voters and donors included names, dates of birth, physical addresses, emails, whether the person was a registered Republican, their occupation and place of employment — samples on the list included retirees, pool technicians, drivers, loggers, etc. — credit card information, donor analysis data and donation amount, among other details.
JACK SMITH’S TRUMP PROBE SWEPT UP FOX NEWS, OTHER MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS AS INVESTIGATION WENT BEYOND LAWMAKERS
Fox News Digital reached out to Smith’s newly launched law firm for comment.
The memo follows a previous release from Grassley that showed Smith’s team collected checks from nearly 5,000 Americans across the country who donated to Trump and Trump-aligned Republican entities.
“This update shows that Jack Smith and the Biden Justice Department collected incredibly invasive donor data — and voter data — beyond what could conceivably be necessary for him or his team to fulfill the [special counsel office’s] mandate,” Grassley said.
HOUSE VOTES TO REPEAL CONTROVERSIAL ARCTIC FROST PROVISION FROM GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN BILL
“This update further corroborates that Smith and his partisan team aimed to map out the entire Republican Party apparatus,” he continued. “I again call on my Democratic colleagues to join my oversight work instead of trying to defend Smith and sweep his abuse of authority under the rug.”
Grassley noted that during Smith’s hearing last month, he pressed the former special counsel for a “yes or no” answer on whether his investigation gathered data on donors.
“Yes,” Smith said. “We acquired financial information. As I sit here right now, I cannot recite to you every subpoena we issued. I can tell you why we issued subpoenas. And it was to conduct a criminal investigation of one of the most serious crimes that’s ever happened in our nation’s history. I had a duty to collect facts.”
This post appeared first on https://www.foxnews.com
