The FBI analyzed phone records of nine Republican lawmakers, including Wyoming U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, as part of an investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, according to information released Monday by GOP senators.
“The FBI in 2023 sought and obtained data about the senators’ phone use from January 4 through January 7, 2021,” according to a press release from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa. The committee oversees the FBI.
The data does not include the content of the calls, the release said, but shows “when and to whom a call is made, as well as the duration and general location data of the call.”
Included in the release was a copy of a one-page FBI document dated Sept. 27, 2023, which lists Lummis alongside seven other U.S. senators and one U.S. representative. Several parts of the document were redacted.
“FBI special agent [redacted] conducted preliminary toll analysis on limited tolls records associated with the following US Senators,” the document states.
Alongside some of the other listed Republicans, Lummis is accusing the bureau of more than what is indicated in the document, including espionage.
“I’m absolutely appalled that the Biden administration used the FBI to spy on the private communications of Republican U.S. Senators — myself included,” Lummis said in a statement to WyoFile. “This was a blatant assault on our constitutional rights as elected officials and a calculated attempt to sabotage the separation of powers.”
Lummis is calling for “immediate investigation and prosecution,” and that those responsible “be held accountable” to ensure “this abuse of power can never happen again.”
The document does not indicate why the phone records of Lummis, or the other eight Republicans, were of particular interest to the FBI.
However, most of the nine lawmakers took varying actions to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Lummis, for example, voted against certifying election results in Pennsylvania, where President Joe Biden won, after armed protestors broke into the Capitol.
Lummis has her own theory for why she was included.
“The only reason I can think of why the FBI felt it had to spy on me and my Republican colleagues is that we support President Trump,” Lummis said Tuesday in a post on X.
Lummis was not available for an interview with WyoFile before this article was published.
At a Senate committee hearing Tuesday with Attorney General Pam Bondi, Republican lawmakers pointed to the FBI document as proof that the Biden administration had politicized the federal agency. They also repeatedly denounced Jack Smith, the former special counsel who indicted President Donald Trump for conspiracy and other crimes related to Jan. 6.
After Trump won in 2024, the Justice Department dropped the case as part of a longstanding policy that says sitting presidents cannot face criminal prosecution.
Would they be so indignant if they didn’t have something to hide?
It was called Operation Arctic Frost, and included a very stand investigative method to track who called whom and when using publically available ( by court order/warrant ) the metadata of phone calls. Law enforcement agencies – even your own hometowners and our state DCI do this routinely. Yet Lummis wants us to believe the FBI was spying on the private communications of US Sentaors. Ha! Not true. They merely tabulated all the cellphone traffic connections from January 4th thru January 8th before and after the insurrection… thousands of participants public and private. It’s what was used to paint the moving picture of the people and movements of the most dangerous days in recent America history. Senators were not singled out or tracked … no more than anyone else who was inside the Beltway those fateful days. S.O.P.
Much much later when the location and timing of the metadata was collated did a number of patterns appear. The communications between Trump, his White House, and several key politicians were catalogues. It was a system of ” Connect the Dots ” . In this case, certain Senators were tagged on a flowline from Trump, Giuliani and associates out and back to a small circle of their key people , including Senator Cynthia Lummis. This was a crystal clear example of how the FBI et al was able to build cases of insurrection against a thousand individuals and convict over 600 of them … the fools were broadcasting their whereabouts and movements on the celltowers. Nobody’s private messaging, texts, or voice conversations were spied on or transcripted then . Not necessary.
But I’m blathering. Instead, I will steer you to a delightful exposé of Operation Arctic Frost and Grassley’s misdirection and the Senator’s coverups and foibles and foolishness. Sure, it’s produced by the mystery group Anonymous and has the air of a conspracy propaganda message, but it’s really not. Those folks are factual behind the Guy Fawkes masks. So all you concerned Commentors here are encouraged to watch this educational enlightening and even entertaining 8 minute piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6dplWRCIQs&t=400s
Looks like the FBI was doing their job to look at what was going on with these people in office that were not accepting the election results. I would like the FBI to look at DOGE looking at my tax returns by unsecured punks that are computer hackers we all were violated by them.
Cindy, You bought the ticket, now take the ride.
The comparison to the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover is a false one. Under Hoover, FBI agents tapped phones and secretly listened to conversations. They infiltrated organizations. They went far beyond obtaining and examining the toll records for Sen. Lummis’s and others’ phone calls, which is what (as far as we know) they did in this case. We ought to be concerned when FBI agents (or any other law-enforcement officers) act surreptitiously, but we also need to recognize that, sometimes, secrecy is justified. Sen. Lummis and the GOPs claim that the FBI went too far in this matter. Maybe we’ll learn that they did. But they certainly did not use J. Edgar Hoover’s tactics.
The current FBI still does all that. They also entrap and frame innocent people. The so-called plot to kidnap the Michigan governor was entrapment. https://reason.com/2022/09/04/its-almost-always-the-feds/?nab=1
Off topic deflection
Actually, I think it would be interesting and informative to post them all from ALL politicans, iregardlesss of of which side they represent.
You’re an employee of the US taxpayers, Cynthia. We have every right to know what you do and when you do it. It’s called Freedom of Information yet the word “freedom” apparently scares the beejeezus outta’ Lummis. You’re over your head, Cynthia
I’m calling B.S. on the report that the FBI under the Biden Administration traced the calls of sitting U.S. Senators. It’s hard to fathom how anyone could believe anything coming out of the Trump Administration. Given that Trump is the most prolific lier of all time any amount of credibility given to him or any of his underlings is subject to the upmost degree of disbelieve.
J. Edgar would be so proud of Comey & Wray. It would be interesting to see the phone records of Pelosi, Schumer, Schiff, et al from around the same time.
Cheers.
This rank speculation from you and Lummis is pretty wild when the current president doesn’t even try to hide vindictive prosecution of his enemies.
Correction: apparently that truth social post was supposed to be a direct message to Bondi. Apparently he is too *incompetent* to hide his corruption
If the three were involved in a hair brained scheme to subvert a legal election, then yes, they should be investigated.
But they weren’t involved. So your what about-ism is fantasy. Why do the chrump sycophants deal in fantasy?
Lummis tries to overthrow an election that over 70 judges determine was fairly decided. FBI decides to investigate. What a surprise! Being a Trump fluffer has consequences.
Maggie,
It cannot be concluded that voting against certifying election results in the state of Pennsyvania was an action to overturn the 2020 election by certain lawmakers including Senator Cynthia Lummis. That is a very unfair statement and conclusion drawn in your article that shows a byas in reporting on your part. Certifying an election is a very serious part of the election process, and should not be taken lightly as many reporters seem to believe our elected lawmakers should do.
Well, Rebecca. Considering all that is going on with Trump in the US right now, I think Maggie is right on point!
I’d also like to add, if Lummis was so concerned about protecting the integrity of the 2020 election why is it that she, Barrasso, Hageman, and the rest of the republican congress abdicated their oath to the constitution of the United States in deference to party over country, to protecting Donald Trump over the bedrock principles to which this country was founded? All three of them are an un-American embarrassement to this state and the people who live here.
I hope to God my fellow Wyomingites come to their senses and see this MAGA movement for the huge con job that it is before the next election and put some decent, sensible people (forget about party affiliations for once) into the positions currently held by our current representatives (and I use that term very loosely when refering to these three)
Biden won the election. Lummis knew it. Her vote was the action of an insurrectionist.
No, Cynthia. The FBI, helmed by Trump-appointed Christopher Wray, did not “spy on” you.
Your electronic communications became known as part of a legitimate investigation.
Words matter. Yours are inaccurate and inflammatory.
I feel quite certain that Lummis would do whatever she could to nullify an election she didn’t like. Her actions certainly needed scrutiny.
I suspect that would apply to every oolitician who loses a race. A politican is a politician irregardless of the party.
My first reaction was “what was Lummis doing, or thought to be doing that the FBI choose her along with some others to monitor” My second thought is this “I assume that the phone logs belonged to a phone that is paid for and government issued”. If that assumption is correct, then the Government has every right to monitor phone as well as other government equipment as it sees fit. I understand her reaction, but if everything is above board, then she has nothing to hide. Remember George Orwell in the book 1984, well this is the 21st century and we are well passed “Big brother is watching”
Is anyone seriously confused about why the FBI was concerned about these people supporting an insurrection?!!
[FBI mission statement: “Our mission is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States.”]
“However, most of the nine lawmakers took varying actions to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Lummis, for example, voted against certifying election results in Pennsylvania, where President Joe Biden won, after armed protestors broke into the Capitol.”
We’re all appalled at you Lummis. The FBI should investigate this Wyoming turncoat.
As the Trump administration openly calls for the arrest and prosecution of his political opponents, sends national guard troops into Democratic cities, denies FEMA aid to Democratic states, fires government employees that don’t swear an oath to him or won’t falsify data to make him look good and basically openly states he is only a president for the MAGA base – his administration saying any other administration “weaponized” any government agency is a joke.
Oh, now she supports the US Constitution?
I’m so old, I can remember when Cynthia told us the Jan. 6 traitors were actually antifa members dressed as Trump supporters.
“The FBI in 2023 sought and obtained data about the senators’ phone use from January 4 through January 7, 2021,”
“The only reason I can think of why the FBI felt it had to spy on me and my Republican colleagues is that we support President Trump,”
Cynthia is correct. She supported Trump in plotting to overthrow the legitimate election of Joe Biden. Were they looking into that possibility? Certainly.
On the morning of January 4, 2021 she was discussing a plan to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power at the Trump International Hotel. January 6th is two days later. She supported Trump, not the Constitution.
Dr. Marcy Wheeler documented <a href="https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/02/11/while-trump-was-secretly-loading-up-documents-mike-ellis-was-hoarding-an-nsa-document-at-the-white-house/" where she was and what was discussed, which was ludicrous She is unfit.
Why was these 9 republicans targeted ? It appears from the article that they were all involved in some form of overturning the election which since it has been litigated many time and no evidence of wrong doing by anyone on the democratic side….It is highly unusual that anyone voted not to certify election with no evidence or proof of wrong doing so it seems there must be an ulterior motive ? I feel the FBI should be concerned as to what the possible ulterior motive was ? Is it possible there was interference from outside ?