Partisan prosecutors at the Biden administration’s Department of Justice charged forward with an investigation into Republican members of Congress after privately saying the primary evidence lacked credibility, new records show.
The documents, released by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, on Tuesday, show the beginnings of “Operation Rampart 12.” The operation, which the FBI launched to investigate multiple Republican members of Congress based on claims that they assisted Jan. 6 Capitol rioters, is believed to be a predecessor case to the get-Trump lawfare operation Arctic Frost.
Biden’s FBI opened Rampart Twelve on Jan. 22, 2021. Then-Rep. Mikie Sherrill’s accusations against congressional colleagues formed the primary basis of the investigation, which was carried forward by several DOJ and FBI officials whose private communications reveal there was no legitimate basis for it. Sherrill is now the Democrat governor of New Jersey.
“The Democrats have supported these fired former Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI officials. But, as the records show, these fired officials weren’t protecting our country,” Grassley wrote in an opening statement for a Senate hearing on Arctic Frost on Tuesday. “They were literally trying to destroy it.”
J.P. Cooney and Molly Gaston — both of whom later worked with Jack Smith on his anti-Trump legal campaign — were the “two partisan prosecutors” who decided to move forward with the investigations into Reps. Lauren Boebert, Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs, and Mo Brooks. The move came after Sherrill alleged on a Jan. 12, 2021, Facebook Live stream that some Republican members had led “reconnaissance” tours of the U.S. Capitol prior to Jan. 6 in order to allow them to map out the forthcoming riot.
The corporate media trumpeted Sherrill’s allegations at the time, and she led a group of more than 30 House Democrats in sending a letter to the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms demanding information about Jan. 5 visitors. The FBI obtained phone toll records for Boebert and Gosar, according to the documents, much in the same way that Arctic Frost fraudulently obtained phone records of other Republicans on Capitol Hill.
“What you’ll find in the available records is that the evidence to support the investigation didn’t exist,” Grassley wrote.
In a Jan. 13, 2021, text to Cooney, Gaston stated, “so mickie [sic] sherrill has such important groundbreaking information that she has agreed to talk to amanda … friday.”
Cooney said of Sherrill, “that is embarrassing … appalling,” to which Gaston replied, “i hate politicians.”
Cooney then said, “me too … makes her allegations completely incredible.”
On Jan. 16, Cooney texted Gaston regarding video footage of Boebert in the Capitol, noting that Boebert was “near Sherrill.” But she was “not with others,” Cooney confirmed to Gaston.
“There is a maga hat group about a minute behind her … but it’s a family — with kids,” Cooney said.
There was another person in the tourist group taking pictures, whom Cooney described as “weird” but “not … suspicious.”
Gaston wanted to focus on “figur[ing] out what time the goasar [sic] thing happened … and get that video.”
https://thefederalist.com/2026/04/21/new-records-reveal-fbi-cooked-up-another-fake-investigation-to-spy-on-republicans/