Grassley says DOJ collected data on 639,000 Republicans

What Grassley alleges

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, says the Justice Department obtained spreadsheets containing personal information on more than 639,000 Republican voters, donors and supporters during the Arctic Frost investigation.

Grassley’s memo says more than 148,000 spreadsheet rows were identified as donors, generally involving small-dollar contributions. The records included names, birth dates, home and email addresses, occupations, employers, Republican registration status, donation amounts, donor analysis and credit card information, Grassley said.

The information also covered purchases of red MAGA hats and other Trump merchandise, including purchasers’ names and home shipping addresses. Grassley said investigators received a catalog of campaign products such as shirts, mugs and door mats and shared records with FBI agents. He characterized the collection as broader and more personally invasive than necessary for the investigation.

The Arctic Frost investigation

The Justice Department opened Arctic Frost in 2022 to investigate efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. The investigation later came under former special counsel Jack Smith.

Grassley has been examining the investigation and releasing information from whistleblowers. An earlier disclosure from the chairman said Smith’s team collected checks from nearly 5,000 people who donated to Trump or Republican organizations aligned with him.

Smith testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2026, where Republican senators questioned him about the scope of his investigations. Fox News contacted Smith’s law firm about Grassley’s latest allegations.

What the claim means

Grassley’s account concerns investigators obtaining and reviewing personal records as part of a federal probe. The memo’s central dispute is whether the scope and detail of that collection were relevant and necessary to the special counsel’s work.