A little-noticed provision in the Senate’s latest government funding bill has renewed Republican scrutiny of surveillance practices used during the Biden administration in Jan. 6–related investigations.
What began as a routine vote to avert a government shutdown escalated into a cross-chamber dispute after House Republicans learned that senators had added language offering legal protections available only to members of the upper chamber.
The provision would allow senators who were targets of former special counsel Jack Smith’s “Arctic Frost” investigation to sue the federal government if they were surveilled without prior notice.
The provision covers eight GOP senators: Lindsey Graham, Bill Hagerty, Josh Hawley, Dan Sullivan, Tommy Tuberville, Ron Johnson, Cynthia Lummis and Marsha Blackburn. If they pursue a claim, each of them could be entitled to $500,000.
