Biden's administration spied on Trump's cell phones during 2022

In May 2022, Biden's White House handed over government mobile phones belonging to President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence to the FBI, as part of an investigation related to the aftermath of the 2020 elections.

This action has been considered by some as an attempt to link Trump to the investigation without sufficient basis to justify it.

The FBI didn't need a court order to obtain the physical phones from the White House, but after acquiring them, the agents began drafting a search warrant to extract data from the devices.

Sources familiar with the investigation reported that the White House legal team, under the direction of Dana Remus and Jonathan Su, consented to the FBI obtaining Trump's and Pence's phones in early May 2022. Weeks later, the FBI began drafting the search warrant.

The phones were recovered as part of the FBI's initial investigation into the 2020 elections, known within the agency as "Arctic Frost", which was officially opened on April 13, 2022, under the direction of Timothy Thibault, a former FBI agent considered anti-Trump.

According to whistleblowers, Thibault violated established protocols by initiating the investigation without the necessary authorization. It was reported that Thibault made the decision to open the investigation and involve Trump, although only special agents have the authority to open criminal investigations.

In his communications, Thibault expressed that the investigation should be prioritized above all others and complained that it had taken too long to start.

Thibault has a dark history at the FBI, as it was recently discovered that the former agent was accused of sending nude photos of his girlfriend without any consent and was key in hindering investigations into Hunter Biden. 

At the end of April 2022, the FBI began coordinating interviews with more than a dozen people in various field offices of the agency nationwide.

This information comes from whistleblower complaints that were delivered to the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley, and the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations, Ron Johnson. 

The new records indicate that on April 25, 2022, the Department of Justice and the FBI were informed that the mobile phones belonging to Trump and Pence were in the possession of individuals at the White House.

On May 4, 2022, FBI agents took possession of the phones, which were introduced as evidence, but weren't processed until the corresponding search warrants were obtained.

On the same day, FBI agents interviewed the Deputy White House Counsel, Jonathan Su. Subsequently, on May 9, 2022, a letter was sent requesting additional information about the phones to White House Counsel Dana Remus. 

Additionally, attempts were made to interview several Trump administration officials, including employees of the White House, the Department of Justice, and the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, who acts as CIA director during Trump's second term.

In response to the revelations, Grassley and Johnson sent a letter to the Attorney General Pam Bondi and the FBI Director, Kash Patel, urging greater transparency about the funds and resources used in the "Arctic Frost" investigation.

In the letter, it was emphasized that the public deserves to know the extent of the "corruption" within the Department of Justice and the FBI, which, according to the senators, used all possible resources to pursue Trump and his followers.

They also requested the production of all records related to the investigation, including internal reports on updates to it, as well as a detailed breakdown of expenses made before the investigation was transferred to Jack Smith in November 2022.

FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson indicated that the agency was working to comply with Congress's requests, according to Director Patel's guidelines.

As for Thibault, Fox News Digital reported in 2024 that he had been fired from the FBI after violating the Hatch Act due to his political posts on social media.

Previous whistleblowers claimed that Thibault had demonstrated a strong pattern of public bias that likely affected investigations related to Trump and Hunter Biden.

In November 2022, Democratic Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith as special counsel to oversee the investigation into the retention of classified documents.

Smith also took charge of the investigation into the alleged interference by Trump in the transfer of power after the 2020 elections, including the certification of the Electoral College vote on January 6, 2021. As a result, Smith incorrectly charged Trump in both cases, although Trump pleaded not guilty.

The case about the classified documents was dismissed in July 2024 by Judge Aileen Cannon of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida, who ruled that Smith was illegally appointed as special counsel.

As for the 2020 election case, Smith requested to dismiss the lawsuit in the District Court of Washington D.C., to which Judge Tanya Chutkan granted the request.