Sen. Bill Hagerty said Sunday that he was "shocked to no end" that former special counsel Jack Smith placed him and other Republican senators under surveillance as part of the FBI's Arctic Frost investigation tied to the Jan. 6 events.
He called it another example of "lawfare" against President Donald Trump and his allies.
"This isn't the first time it's happened to me," the Tennessee Republican told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures." "It happened when I was helping President Trump in 2016. We were surveilled then, under the Obama administration. And [then], under President Biden, it [was] happening again. The one thing we all have in common is that we're Republicans."
Hagerty said Smith, who brought multiple indictments against Trump, obtained a subpoena allowing investigators to monitor his phone calls, including the numbers dialed, call duration, and location data.
He said Verizon, his carrier, confirmed the surveillance in response to his inquiry.
"I sent a letter to Verizon demanding they tell me why this happened," Hagerty said. "They said they were operating under a subpoena. I want to know who issued it, what they were looking for, and why we weren't informed. We're going to get to the bottom of this."
Hagerty added that Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is already working to call in Department of Justice and FBI officials for hearings.
He suggested that the operation was politically motivated.
"There was no pretext, just that we were allies of President Trump. This lawfare has got to come to an end," said Hagerty.
Hagerty said he believes the surveillance extended to multiple carriers beyond Verizon.
"I would presume anybody who was a carrier," he said. "This should never be happening in America, yet it did. When a Democrat administration comes after solely Republican senators, something is terribly wrong."
He accused the Biden administration of weaponizing law enforcement to damage the GOP and Trump's 2024 campaign.
"They were going after President Trump using every means they could to defeat him, and now they're coming after his allies in the Senate," he said. "It's inexcusable."
Turning to the government shutdown, Hagerty criticized Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for refusing to negotiate.
"Schumer said this past week that every day the shutdown goes on, it's better for us. My question is, who is 'us'? It's certainly not our military or TSA workers," Hagerty said. "He's willing to sacrifice national security and Americans' livelihoods for his own political future."
Hagerty accused Schumer of trying to appease the party's far left ahead of next week's "No Kings" march in Washington.
"If you polled it today, Schumer would lose to AOC in a New York primary," he said. "He's bending to the radicals to save his career."
Hagerty, a former U.S. ambassador to Japan, also warned about China's growing aggression and control over rare earth minerals. "They've been targeting these resources for decades," he said.
"President Trump is right to push back hard. We have to treat this as a strategic threat."
As Hagerty concluded, he offered condolences to the families of 20 Tennesseans killed in a recent munitions plant explosion, saying, "My heart and my prayers go out to them. They were helping America rebuild its strength."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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