Grassley Presses Verizon Over Two-Year Gap in Disclosing Jack Smith Subpoena to Congress

The Arctic Frost investigation has spun off a new front: what Verizon knew about its own subpoena records, and when.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, sent a letter to Verizon on Thursday, July 30, along with 15 Senate colleagues, demanding the company explain how a May 25, 2023 grand jury subpoena went unmentioned in its own paperwork for more than two years, according to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Verizon has told Grassley's office the omission came down to "human error," reporting from ZeroHedge and Fox News confirms.

The subpoena in question came from Smith's Arctic Frost team, the codename for the FBI probe into 2020 election interference that put Smith at the helm as special counsel. It sought toll records, call metadata including phone numbers, dates, times and cell tower locations, not the content of calls, tied to senators' phones. Two of the numbers belonged to the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms, according to ZeroHedge.

The 2023 Search That Missed It

Grassley's inquiry into Verizon isn't new. Back in October 2023, as part of his long-running oversight of the FBI's earlier Crossfire Hurricane investigation, Grassley asked Verizon to search its files for every DOJ or federal law enforcement request touching Senate devices between January 2016 and October 2023. Verizon wrote back that it generally keeps legal process on file for four years and had no records predating October 2019, according to Fox News and ZeroHedge. What it didn't mention: the May 25, 2023 grand jury subpoena issued by Smith's Arctic Frost team for senators' phone toll records.

Congress didn't learn the subpoena existed until 2025, when Verizon told Grassley's office the 2023 omission came down to "human error," per ZeroHedge. Grassley isn't satisfied with that explanation. His new letter wants to know whether Verizon actually found the subpoena during its 2023 search and stayed quiet, or genuinely missed a live federal legal demand sitting in its own compliance files for two years.

Under a contract Verizon signed with the Senate in May 2022, a subpoena touching the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms's lines is supposed to trigger automatic notice to the SAA, according to ZeroHedge. Grassley's letter effectively asks how that contractually mandated notification never happened.

What Grassley Wants

The letter, co-signed by Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI) and 14 other senators, demands Verizon disclose the exact dates that Verizon CEO Daniel Schulman and other executives, including Hans Vestberg, Craig Silliman and Vandana Venkatesh, were first told about the May 2023 subpoena; turn over internal records from May 2023 through October 2025 discussing whether Verizon believed it had a duty to notify Congress or the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms; and explain, in more detail, what "human error" actually means, according to ZeroHedge and Fox News.

Of the senators who signed the letter, several — including Marsha Blackburn, Rick Scott, Tommy Tuberville, Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, John Cornyn, Cindy Hyde-Smith and Bill Hagerty — also had their own phone toll records or text messages swept up by Smith's investigators, according to the Senate Judiciary Committee and Fox News.

"Jack Smith oversaw a sweeping and unprecedented investigation that swept up records from hundreds of Republican entities, including the phone toll records and text messages from myself and dozens of my colleagues," Grassley said in a statement. "Congress deserves to know the full picture of how Smith carried out Arctic Frost so it never happens again. As part of our investigation, we need to fully understand what Verizon knew about Smith's subpoenas, when they became aware members were impacted and why the company didn't inform members like they were supposed to."

The House Judiciary Committee has also opened its own probe into Smith's Arctic Frost investigation, according to Just The News.