Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has vowed to take sweeping legal action against former Special Counsel Jack Smith and others in the federal government following revelations that their team allegedly tracked his personal phone records as part of the investigation into the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Appearing on Fox News’ “Hannity” on Tuesday, a day after the Fox News Digital report was published, an outraged Graham labeled the alleged surveillance an “abuse of power” and a politically motivated attempt to undermine his ally, President Donald Trump.
“If they did this without good reason and without cause, I’m going to sue the crap out of these people,” Graham declared. When asked by host Sean Hannity if that would include Smith directly, Graham responded, “Whoever I can sue on behalf of the future of people who will come after me, we cannot allow the abuse of power to go… unchecked.”
The controversy stems from an exclusive report detailing that Smith’s “Arctic Frost” investigative team allegedly obtained and analyzed the call metadata—which includes phone numbers dialed, as well as the time and location of calls—for nearly a dozen Republican lawmakers. An FBI official reportedly told Fox News Digital that the calls were likely scrutinized due to their potential relevance to plans to challenge the certification of the 2020 electoral votes.
Senator Graham noted that the alleged monitoring occurred in 2023, more than two years after the Jan. 6 incident, and argued there was no justification to believe he had committed a crime.
“Here’s what I believe. If he [Trump] had never announced he was going to run for president, none of this would have happened,” Graham asserted. He described the actions of Smith and other prosecutors as “all orchestrated” to “destroy this man so he could not win in 2024.”
The South Carolina Senator also pointed to the timing of Smith’s actions related to President Trump, citing a document from Smith released in October just before the recent election as part of a pattern of political interference.
Graham doubled down on the need for accountability for those involved in the alleged surveillance. “If they don’t pay a price now, they’ll keep doing it,” he said. “My goal is not to do this to Democrats, to make sure it’s never done to anybody in the future.”
The list of lawmakers whose phone records were allegedly tracked by Smith’s team includes GOP Senators Marsha Blackburn (TN), Ron Johnson (WI), Josh Hawley (MO), Cynthia Lummis (WY), Bill Hagerty (TN), Dan Sullivan (AK), and Tommy Tuberville (AL), as well as Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA).
RELATED: ‘OUTRAGEOUS’: FBI ‘Spied’ On 8 US Senators In Trump Probe That Became Jack Smith’s Case
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