Ben Ferguson (8:23)
It is very clear the left realizes now they're running out of ways to stop President Trump from doing his job, a job that he was elected by the American people to do. And they're going to do everything they can to continue to try to stop him. But as we witness what is happening now in Portland and the total number of arrests nationwide in the last nine months, and law and order that is also being restored to incredibly violent cities like Portland, Washington, D.C. memphis, Tennessee, and many more to come, including Chicago, what you're witnessing is a president that is doing exactly what he promised he was going to do. Keep all Americans safe, no matter where you live. Now, story number two, it happened several years ago, but we're now finally starting to get to the bottom of the corruption at the Deep State under Joe Biden's leadership. You may remember us talking about Arctic Frost, and that was an FBI DOJ investigation that was open in April of 2022 as a, quote, sensitive investigative matter. It focused on efforts they claimed at the time to overturn the 2020 election. That's right. They were saying that Donald Trump was trying to overthrow the will of the people. Multiple outlets and Senator Chuck Grassley's committee are now describing it as a precursor to Jack Smith's D.C. case against Donald Trump. Grassley's office says agents issued hundreds of subpoenas, conducted dozens of interviews and sought call records for eight Republican senators and one House member from January 4th through the 7th of 2021. We now know that list has expanded and now includes Senator Ted Cruz. We also know that not only were they spying on elected members of Congress that were Republicans only, they also targeted GOP aligned organizations. Notable actions linked to Arctic frost include the FBI's August 9, 2022 seizure of representative Scott Perry's phone surveillance used to locate him and brought a request tied to alternate electors. Later, elements fed into Special Counsel Jack Smith's work. Which brings us to the new bombshell. Chuck Grassley has now released documents he says show proof that the Attorney General, Merrick Garland, the Deputy Attorney General, Lisa Monaco, and FBI Director Christopher Wray personally approved opening Arctic Frost in April of 2022. Multiple write ups cite the memo and handwritten sign offs. And Grassley posted the claims publicly as well. Now, Grassley's characterization is simple. He framed Arctic Frost as a sweeping partisan overreach that weaponized law enforcement and surveilled members of Congress. He ties it to Smith's now dismissed D.C. case. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. So let's break this down a little bit more. The former Attorney General Merrick Garland and former FBI Director Ray decided to approve the sensitive matter. And that led to the surveillance of virtually every Republican that we know of right now. It helped spark a special counsel probe, which was what it was designed to do into Donald Trump's, quote, efforts to overturn the 2020 election. That obviously was a lie. Grassley now signed the new documents he received from the Department of Justice and Garland's approval of the sensitive investigation matter on April 5 of 2022, recommended by the Deputy Attorney General, Lisa Monaco. And what it did was authorize the FBI's Washington Field Office to launch a, quote, full investigation into what officials described as a articulable factual basis indicating the existence of a federal crime, quote, unquote. They said involved Trump and individuals closely associated with Donald Trump. Which is exactly how they opened the fishing expedition to go after Trump and to try to lock him up. Now, the launch of Arctic Frost and the investigation would then lead to the appointment of the Special Counsel, Jack Smith in November of 2022, quote, proof that Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and FBI Director Ray all personally approved opening Arctic Frost. Grassley said in his statement. This investigation leased unchecked government power at the highest levels. My oversight will continue, Grassley says. Grassley also announced earlier this month that at least nine Republican centers now were targeted by the FBI in this probe. On October 6, Grassley said FBI agents conducted toll record analysis, a form of communications metadata review, on several GOP lawmakers, including Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. The toll analysis of the phones could have revealed whom each lawmaker contacted by call or text in the days surrounding the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. Grassley called this worse than Watergate. In addition, 92 Republican or Conservative aligned groups and individuals, including Turning Point usa, co founded by slain conservative leader Charlie Kirk, were also targeted, suggesting that Arctic Frost was much broader than just an electoral matter, Grassley said during the briefing. He said this shows now that they were targeting their political adversaries. Arctic Frost wasn't just a case to politically investigate Trump. It was the vehicle by which partisan GOP agents and DOJ prosecutors could achieve their partisan ends and improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus, grassley added. FBI Director Cash Patel also coming out vowing transparency and accountability following the revelations. After Grassley's announcement, we terminate employees, we abolished the weaponized CR15 squad, and we initiated an ongoing investigation with more accountability measures ahead, Patel said. CR15 was the FBI's Washington Field Office squad focused on investigating federal public corruption. In reality, it was just going after conservatives. In May, the FBI quietly disbanded CR15 and reassigned its agents as part of a broader reorganization and shift in priorities. So here we are with even more evidence that the Biden administration did everything they could not only to go after Donald Trump, but to go after anyone that supported Donald Trump politically and any up and coming conservative that they found. A threat was then put on their list to be investigated. Thank goodness President Trump is now in the Oval Office and the people around him are making sure that this never happens again. Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson. 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