The Biden Justice Department’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election swept up personal information on more than 639,000 Republican voters, donors and supporters, according to a new memo first obtained by Fox News Digital.
The memo, from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), alleges that former special counsel Jack Smith’s office obtained spreadsheets containing extensive personal and financial information — including records associated with ordinary Americans making small-dollar political donations.
The findings mark the latest development in Grassley’s investigation into the scope of the Arctic Frost probe, which began in 2022 and examined efforts to overturn the election results.
According to the memo quoted by Fox News Digital, Smith’s office and the DOJ “obtained spreadsheets containing Republican campaign donors, supporters, and detailed personal voter information in various formats, totaling over 639,000 individuals, at minimum.”
“Out of those, over 148,000 rows are identified in the spreadsheets as donors,” Grassley wrote. “The donors generally contributed small-dollar amounts.”
Personal Details Beyond Donation Totals
The information went well beyond names and contribution amounts.
According to Fox News Digital’s reporting, the records included dates of birth, home and email addresses, Republican registration status, occupations, employers, credit card information and donor analysis data.
The occupations listed included retirees, pool technicians, drivers and loggers.
In a separate statement released Wednesday, Grassley’s office said the credit card information included the last four digits of card numbers. Some contributions were as small as $1, and the earliest donation captured dated to 2005, according to his office.
Grassley argued that the collection exceeded what Smith needed to carry out his assignment.
“This update shows that Jack Smith and the Biden Justice Department collected incredibly invasive donor data — and voter data — beyond what could conceivably be necessary for him or his team to fulfill the [special counsel office’s] mandate,” Grassley said, according to Fox News Digital.
He further accused Smith’s team of seeking to map the Republican Party’s broader political network.
“I again call on my Democratic colleagues to join my oversight work instead of trying to defend Smith and sweep his abuse of authority under the rug,” Grassley said.
Those allegations concern the purpose and scope of the investigation; Smith has defended his team’s collection of financial records as part of its criminal inquiry.
Smith Defends Subpoenas
The memo follows an earlier Grassley disclosure concerning checks collected from nearly 5,000 Americans who donated to Trump and Trump-aligned Republican entities.
During Smith’s appearance before the Judiciary Committee last month, Grassley pressed him for a yes-or-no answer about whether investigators had gathered donor information.
“Yes,” Smith responded, according to the testimony quoted by Fox News Digital. “We acquired financial information.”
“As I sit here right now, I cannot recite to you every subpoena we issued. I can tell you why we issued subpoenas,” Smith continued. “And it was to conduct a criminal investigation of one of the most serious crimes that’s ever happened in our nation’s history. I had a duty to collect facts.”
