Trump: Former Biden officials ‘should be prosecuted’ for Arctic Frost

President Trump said former Biden officials like special counsel Jack Smith and Attorney General Merrick Garland should be prosecuted for probing Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Mr. Smith, Mr. Garland, along with former FBI Director Christopher A. Wray and former Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, were all mentioned in Mr. Trump’s Friday social media post.

“Just in: Documents show conclusively that Christopher Wray, Deranged Jack Smith, Merrick Garland, Lisa Monaco, and other crooked lowlifes from the failed Biden Administration, signed off on Operation Arctic Frost,” the president wrote. “They spied on Senators and Congressmen/women, and even taped their calls. They cheated and rigged the 2020 Presidential Election. These Radical Left Lunatics should be prosecuted for their illegal and highly unethical behavior!”

Arctic Frost was launched in 2022 to probe the events leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. The FBI secretly obtained call records for nine GOP lawmakers — eight senators and one congressman — for three days starting Jan. 4, 2021.

The operation led to Mr. Smith’s indictment of Mr. Trump for election interference. The case was dismissed late last year after Mr. Trump won a second term in the White House.

The Republican lawmakers spied on by the FBI were Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, as well as Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania.

Newly declassified documents showed that Mr. Garland and Mr. Wray approved the investigation into Mr. Trump and the Republican officials.

The FBI’s Washington Field Office, in an April 5, 2022, memo to Mr. Garland, sought to open “a full sensitive investigative matter” based on “evidence that presents specific and articulable facts that individuals known and unknown,” tried to obstruct Congress from certifying the presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021.

At the bottom of the memo, Mr. Wray included a handwritten note: “Merrick — I recommend you approve — CW.”

Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican who chairs the Judiciary Committee, obtained the memo and made it public.

He also heaped criticism on Mr. Wray and Mr. Garland.

“Just received this doc from DOJ Proof that Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and FBI Director Chris Wray all PERSONALLY APPROVED opening Arctic Frost,” Mr. Grassley said. “This investigation unleashed unchecked government power at the highest levels. My oversight will continue.”

Democrats have largely backed the federal probe and subsequent indictment of Mr. Trump for election interference following the 2020 election.

In the days following the election, Mr. Trump contested results in key swing states where Mr. Biden’s lead was minuscule. Mr. Trump sought recounts in some states, and results were challenged in court, though unsuccessfully, based on election irregularity concerns.

Republicans in the contested swing states devised a plan to stop the certification of Mr. Biden’s victory while the results were under challenge and appointed a slate of new electors who would choose Mr. Trump and not Mr. Biden as the winner.

Certificates of electors’ votes that declared Mr. Trump the winner were sent to the Archivist of the United States from the seven swing states. Mr. Wray indicated in the memo that the effort appeared coordinated and linked directly to the Trump campaign.

Among the evidence was a recording from “an individual purporting to be an elector” from Michigan who claimed that “the Trump campaign asked us to do that.”

The Wray memo also cited comments from individuals made on podcasts and CNN describing the dual elector plan.

“A review of the apparently fraudulent elector certificates, along with the aforementioned open source reporting and public statements made by individuals closely affiliated with the Trump campaign, reasonably indicate the existence of a federal crime,” Mr. Wray wrote.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, testifying earlier this month before the Senate Judiciary Committee, called the spying on Congress members a “historic betrayal of public trust.”

Ms. Bondi said they have identified a total of 92 Republican individuals and GOP-friendly groups that were targeted for intrusive scrutiny by the Biden-era FBI.

Mr. Wray resigned in January, after Mr. Trump indicated he planned to fire him.

• Susan Ferrechio contributed to this report.