Unearthed Docs Reveal More Names Targeted in Biden DOJ’s Fishing Expedition

Authored by Luis Cornelio via Headline USA,

Former Special Counsel Jack Smith targeted more Republican lawmakers and conservative figures than previously known, newly unearthed documents show. 

Smith, tasked by the Biden administration with prosecuting Donald Trump after 2021, has faced scrutiny since 2025, when bombshell disclosures revealed he targeted GOP lawmakers as well as dozens of conservative nonprofits and PACs. 

Newly reported DOJ documents, first obtained Tuesday by Fox News, show the scope extended to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, and Reps. Brian Babin, R-Texas, and Andy Biggs, R-Ariz. 

Also included were now-EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who was then a GOP lawmaker, and former Reps. Mo Brooks, Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar, Louie Gohmert and Jody Hice. 

Smith’s team internally debated seeking phone toll records for the targets, including highly sensitive data like incoming and outgoing numbers, call times and durations, before deciding whether to issue subpoenas. 

The effort emerged through former DOJ attorney Timothy Duree, who was removed from the department after Trump was sworn in for a second term in January 2025. 

“I’d like to seek [the Public Integrity Section’s] concurrence to get phone tolls for several MOCs who had contact with pertinent parties in our investigation,” Duree wrote.

“I’ll keep the timeframe tight—probably October 1, 2020, to January 31, 2021.” 

The documents show Duree compiled a list of 16 names as he weighed whether to subpoena them all at once, though some of those records were ultimately obtained by Smith. 

That list included additional Republican lawmakers previously identified in earlier disclosures, including Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa. 

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was also targeted, but his phone carrier, AT&T, pushed back against the subpoena.

The newly uncovered emails come as the Trump administration and congressional judiciary committees continue examining the scope of the aggressive prosecution targeting Trump and his allies.

The probe began under the controversial Operation Frostbite and later expanded with Smith’s appointment as special counsel.

In February, Headline USA spoke with former FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich, who appeared to play a role in the early stages of the probe.

Bowdich stated that the 2021 probe was carried out in a “non-partisan way, with professionalism and in the spirit of the law which was to follow the facts, no matter where they led.”

Duree did not respond to requests for comment.