Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley released new records Tuesday revealing weaknesses in a Biden-era FBI investigation of Republican lawmakers suspected of leading reconnaissance tours ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Known as “Operation Rampart Twelve,” the FBI’s secret probe obtained lawmakers’ phone toll records as part of the investigation, despite text messages showing Justice Department prosecutors expressing concerns about the legal requirements for doing so, new documents released by Mr. Grassley’s office show.
FBI headquarters subsequently closed the investigation one year after its launch, after failing to uncover credible evidence to support its case against the GOP lawmakers.
Mr. Grassley, Iowa Republican, released the documents during a Judiciary panel subcommittee hearing on the Constitution, alongside Republican Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and Eric Schmitt of Missouri, chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution.
Mr. Grassley said the details of the records of Operation Rampart Twelve were a preliminary investigation opened by the FBI Washington field office into Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Paul Gosar of Arizona and Andy Biggs of Arizona, former Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama, and possibly others.
Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans on the now-disbanded Jan. 6 Select Committee investigated GOP House lawmakers for conducting potential reconnaissance tours on Jan. 5, 2021, for the following day’s riot at the Capitol to protest the certification of the 2020 election of President-elect Biden.
Rep. Barry Loudermilk, Georgia Republican, was among the lawmakers accused by Democrats of engaging in such activity.
“[Rampart Twelve] was based on allegations that Boebert and Gosar led reconnaissance tours in advance of Jan. 6,” Mr. Grassley said. “But what you’ll find in the available records is that the evidence to support the investigation didn’t exist.”
Mr. Grassley mentioned J.P. Cooney, a longtime federal prosecutor and former member of Jack Smith’s Special Counsel’s Office, whom Mr. Grassley said, “personally concurred with opening the investigation, even though his text messages told a different tale.”
Text messages between Mr. Cooney and Molly Gaston, a fellow former federal prosecutor who served as a top deputy to Mr. Smith in the criminal investigations of Mr. Trump, show they questioned the credibility of the allegations before the investigation was opened.
On Jan. 13, 2021, Ms. Gaston messaged Mr. Cooney: “Say for the sake of argument that we did want to look at Lauren Boebert (I don’t think we do).”
Messages from Jan. 16, 2021, show that Mr. Cooney and Ms. Gaston discussed Capitol video footage that appeared to contradict allegations against Ms. Boebert.
Mr. Cooney: “They have Boebert on camera.”
Ms. Gaston: “?”
Mr. Cooney: “and near Sherrill [as in then-Rep. and now-New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat].”
Ms. Gaston: “But Boebert’s not with others?”
Mr. Cooney: “Right. But. There is a MAGA hat group about a minute behind her. But it’s a family—with kids.”
Mr. Cooney and Ms. Gaston then discuss how the video appears to identify a tourist taking photos.
The messages continue:
Ms. Gaston: “Sigh.”
Mr. Cooney: “It’s weird but does not look suspicious.”
Ms. Gaston: “ok. Well, that’s too bad.”
On Feb. 3, 2021, Mr. Cooney emailed Assistant Special Agent in Charge at the Washington Field Office Timothy Thibault that Mr. Cooney concurred with the FBI opening the investigation. The case had already been opened as of Jan. 22, 2021.
“Within months of opening Rampart Twelve, based on the available records, the FBI apparently had nothing substantiating the allegations against Boebert and Gosar,” Mr. Grassley said.
“Cooney, Gaston, [FBI agent Leanna] Saler and Thibault’s partisan, weaponized investigation would continue until it was shut down by FBI Headquarters January 27, 2022, a full year after it was opened,” he said.
In a Jan. 27, 2022, email, Mr. Thibault Ms. Saler, an agent in the FBI’s Public Corruption Unit: “direction from FBI HQ is to the close the case.”
Mr. Grassley also highlighted messages on Feb. 14, 2021, between Mr. Cooney and Ms. Gaston talking about the Speech or Debate Clause and targeting congressional toll records. The clause in the Constitution grants lawmakers absolute immunity from criminal prosecution or civil lawsuits regarding “speech or debate” made in either chamber.
In the messages, Mr. Cooney and Ms. Gaston discuss how they can circumvent the statutory barriers Congress put in place to obtain congressional toll records.
Mr. Cooney says: “I’m re-reading this statutory language this is ridiculous.”
He continues: “I think they contemplate toll records.”
Ms. Gaston later says: “I would rather go through litigation on tolls first.”
“The conversation between these two — where they’re trying to circumvent the law — creates more questions about Jack Smith, J.P. Cooney and Molly Gaston’s secretive efforts to obtain Member toll records,” Mr. Grassley said.
“And, more precisely, their intentional withholding of notice from Members of Congress and their lack of candor to the court. All these records, taken together, show partisan prosecutors and FBI agents used dubious allegations to pursue political investigations against Republican Members of Congress,” he said.
Mr. Cooney, who was fired from the Justice Department in February, is currently running for Congress in Virginia.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.