The agent who sent out subpoenas for Republican lawmakers’ phone records in the now-infamous Arctic Frost probe said prosecutors never told him whose numbers they were. One subpoena was later identified as seeking records for Republican Rep. Jim Jordan (OH-04). Former Justice Department (DOJ) inspector general agent Brian Burnett said he learned of the possible connection after he retired and saw a subpoena bearing his name discussed publicly.
Burnett would not say for certain that the number was Jordan’s, even after committee staff showed him the subpoena. Staff then asked whether he knew who owned any of the other numbers prosecutors gave him.
“COMMITTEE: What about any other Members of Congress? Were you aware that the AUSAs were seeking those subpoenas? Or, when it came to you, were they just phone numbers?
BURNETT: Just phone numbers.”
Burnett said he would have gone to his supervisor if he had known. He had never served a subpoena for a member of Congress’s phone records before and wanted to know whether it called for a different process. Prosecutors gave him no name to raise.
House Judiciary Committee Republicans released Burnett’s interview Tuesday, along with interviews with five prosecutors from the investigation that later became Special Counsel Jack Smith’s case against President Donald Trump.
Republican Scott Perry of Pennsylvania (PA-10) was the only lawmaker whose phone was physically seized. Prosecutors wanted the inspector general’s office to help. Burnett said his supervisor told him the office would not do it because Perry was not a current or former DOJ employee. Investigators went ahead without Burnett's help. They located Perry in New Jersey, took his phone under a warrant, copied its contents, and returned it, former prosecutor Timothy Duree testified.
Burnett said prosecutors directed the investigative steps in the case while agents carried them out. Committee staff asked whether he had ever worked that way before. “Not in my entire 30 years of law enforcement,” he answered.
Duree remembered helping obtain Jordan’s phone records. Committee staff put two sets of dates in front of him: one from correspondence with DOJ’s Public Integrity Section, the other from a subpoena. Duree could not recall exactly which records the team received. He was certain he had not gone beyond the section’s approval.
“I did not do that in this case. I would not do that. That just plain old did not happen, period.”
The subpoenas also came with orders barring phone companies from notifying subscribers. Duree acknowledged that a lawmaker kept in the dark could not challenge a subpoena while the order remained in force. He said prosecutors took lawmakers’ Speech or Debate protections seriously. Former prosecutor Ray Hulser said the team narrowed later subpoenas by person and time period and put its reasons in writing.
Jordan has separately referred Smith to the Justice Department, alleging he made false statements to Congress. Smith has denied wrongdoing. Burnett’s interview adds a narrower, firsthand account: He served demands for lawmakers’ records without knowing they were lawmakers’ numbers.