By Suzanne Downing 
Buried deep in the bipartisan funding bill passed by the US Senate on Nov. 10 to end the nation’s longest government shutdown is a provision giving senators targeted by spying from the Biden FBI some power to sue the federal government for unauthorized access to their private data.
The measure, added quietly by Senate Majority Leader John Thune would allow any US senator to file suit and seek a minimum of $500,000 per violation, plus attorneys’ fees, if federal agencies obtained their phone records or metadata without required notification. The clause applies retroactively to January 2022, covers five years from discovery, and bars the government from claiming absolute or qualified immunity.
The timing and language point directly to the FBI’s “Arctic Frost” investigation, a 2021–2025 probe into Republican officials’ actions surrounding the 2020 election. That inquiry, authorized by then–Attorney General Merrick Garland and led by Special Counsel Jack Smith, swept up metadata from at least eight Republican senators, including Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Josh Hawley of Missouri, and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, as well as one House Republican member.
The FBI collected so-called “tolling data” – call times, durations, and locations. The information was gathered under sealed subpoenas issued by D.C. Chief Judge James Boasberg, who simultaneously barred phone carriers from notifying lawmakers that their personal information had been breached. Such information could have been used to blackmail them.
Those subpoenas remained secret until Sen. Chuck Grassley (R–Iowa) began releasing whistleblower documents in October, revealing that hundreds of Republican-aligned groups and businesses were also swept into the probe. Grassley called the operation “Biden’s Watergate”, accusing the Justice Department of “political weaponization” to build a conspiracy case against Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 election.
Of course, Democrats are all on board with the spying on Republicans. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington blasted it as a “corrupt cash bonus,” while Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon called it a “giveaway of taxpayer dollars to people already in power.” Neither of them had been targeted by the Biden Administration.
Thune’s office defended the clause as “a necessary safeguard against executive overreach,” arguing that it doesn’t automatically pay lawmakers — they still have to file suit and win in court.
The House is expected to take up the measure this week. If passed without amendment, it would mark the first time in modern history that members of Congress could personally sue the federal government over surveillance activities conducted against them.
As much as I loathe legislators of every stripe, I’m of the firm conviction that bureaucrats at every level of government are far and away the worst examples of public servants, as a class, and one cannot despise and loathe them enough. That said, I have dealt with some truly caring individuals in my four decade long professional career interacting with grunts in many government agencies. There ARE exceptions.
Now that the ‘fourth estate’ has become the ‘fifth branch’ of government, Americans should set their hearts and minds on searching for the truth. And invite the ‘loathsome’ to change their ways. I have a 66 book compendium to recommend for those interested….
Sullivan: please please please sue the government for $500,000 for your role in the January 6 domestic insurrection!!! Sue them in October of 2026, right before your re-election campaign.
This provision appears to only create a means for Legislators to collect money from the government. Taxpayers would pay the money to those wronged – not those that engaged in wrongdoing. This enactment will only be effective if individual bad actors can be held personally responsible.
Eventually, Senator Sullivan will figure out that hanging around with Lindsey Graham is a bad idea.
On Thune’s bill—-Where were these folks, Sullivan, Cruz, Flimsy Graham and especially Thune on civil rights up until they discovered they themselves were were tapped?
Shame on you Senators who put yourselves above your constituents! And….this is $500,000 per each tap! 10 taps nets our illustrious Senators 5,000,000 bucks!
How about defending and serving us surfs instead? J-6 folks who were sucked into this China O’Biden cabal’s Fed-Surrection should be getting retribution! So if this crap-bill does pass, all payouts to these officials, Senators etc should be directed to a J-6 victim’s fund and not into the pockets of self serving officials!
Wait! Instead of enriching themselves with our money (all federal government money is ours) how about punishing those who did the spying and making them pay?