EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Rick Scott praises Chuck Grassley’s Arctic Frost hearing as a “step forward” as momentum builds for NDO reform

Jack Smith appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a long-anticipated hearing in which Senate Republicans were able to press the former Biden-era Special Counsel about his record of spying on dozens of lawmakers of both parties.

For some like Sen. Rick Scott (R., Fla.), the hearing was deeply personal. Scott was one of many lawmakers who Smith accessed records of. He told the Washington Reporter following the blockbuster hearing that “for years, Democrats weaponized our federal government against the American people, including me.”

Scott put Smith’s gathering of his records in context of how Democratic administrations have surveilled him throughout his career in both the public and private sectors. “The Clinton administration came after my company when I opposed HillaryCare,” Scott added. “I was surveilled after January 6th; my tax returns were stolen and leaked during the Biden administration.”

For Scott, “Jack Smith is just another tool in Democrats’ playbook to intimidate people like me, my colleagues in Congress, President Trump, and, worst of all, the American people,” he said, adding that he wants Smith to be “held accountable, because if Democrats and the deep state can do this to a Fortune 50 CEO, a U.S. Senator, and the President of the United States, they can and will weaponize government against you.”

“Today’s hearing was another important step forward, and I’m glad Chairman Grassley is working to get accountability,” Scott said, praising Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) for making the hearing happen. “America deserves it.”

Smith’s appearance before Congress comes amidst fallout of the Biden administration’s Arctic Frost scandal. Ahead of his testimony, the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), issued a report which found that “during the Biden-Harris DOJ’s investigation of the 2020 election, codenamed Arctic Frost, and the subsequent Special Counsel investigation, investigators unconstitutionally subpoenaed phone records for over a dozen Republican Members of Congress and obtained gag orders to prevent the Members from knowing that the Biden-Harris Administration had obtained these records.”

“Because the subpoenas and gag orders were obtained ex parte—meaning only the prosecutors presented to the grand jury and judge—the Members had no meaningful opportunity to challenge the Biden-Harris Administration’s actions,” the Judiciary Committee found. “The evidence available to the Committee shows that Special Counsel Smith’s team barely considered the constitutional protections surrounding this material—and to the extent that it did, it concluded that its subpoenas might be unconstitutional. Yet, Special Counsel Smith’s team forged ahead, issued the subpoenas, and at one point, violated the DOJ’s own procedures to review the content of private text messages between 44 Members of Congress and Executive Branch officials.”

Ahead of the hearing, the House of Representatives handed a bipartisan reprimand to Smith, voting unanimously to pass the NDO Fairness Act, which would prevent future special counsels, like Smith, from accessing lawmaker records.

The Reporter previously covered how a clear plurality of Americans support legislation that would restrict the government’s ability to secretly obtain electronic records by a wide margin. 

The GrayHouse survey, which was taken on behalf of a non-profit associated with the Senate Republican Conference (SRC), found that 49 percent of voters support the Senate passing the NDO Fairness Act, compared with just 22 percent who oppose it.