WASHINGTON – Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson was among a handful of Republican senators whose phone data was obtained by the FBI as part of a Biden-era investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, GOP senators announced this week.
Johnson and seven other GOP senators were singled out during the now defunct investigation under former special counsel Jack Smith, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley said. The FBI in 2023 sought the lawmakers’ phone data from between Jan. 4 and Jan. 7, 2021 — the days before and after the U.S. Capitol attack seeking to disrupt certification of the election.
Wisconsin’s senior senator said Oct. 6 he was briefed by top FBI officials about the probe, noting the bureau obtained the senators’ call logs and adding: “We were surveilled simply for being Republicans.”
“This does not surprise me, but it should shock every American,” Johnson wrote on X. “What the Biden Administration has done is an outrageous abuse of power — it is blatant political persecution. Those responsible must be held fully accountable.”
Johnson came under scrutiny during the congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 attack for attempting to deliver fake elector packets from Wisconsin and Michigan to Vice President Mike Pence ahead of the certification of the 2020 election.
Trump campaign attorney Jim Troupis, who alongside attorney Kenneth Chesebro is facing charges in Wisconsin in connection to the effort, asked Johnson to urgently deliver “a document on the Wisconsin electors” shortly before Congress convened on Jan. 6, 2021, to certify President Joe Biden’s election victory.
Johnson’s office coordinated with Pennsylvania U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly to get the false elector documents to Pence, but Pence rejected the efforts. Johnson last year said he had “no idea” the documents were false elector paperwork, even as texts between Johnson and Troupis indicate otherwise.
The other GOP senators included in the records request were: Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.
Kelly, the Pennsylvania congressman, was also included in the FBI request, though he was erroneously referred to as a senator.
The records allowed investigators to see information like the date and time of calls placed during the requested time period but not the content of the communications, the senators said Oct. 6.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: FBI targeted Ron Johnson’s phone records as part of Jan. 6 investigation, Republicans say
Reporting by Lawrence Andrea, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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