Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) says federal prosecutors collected her cell-phone records without her knowledge. She went to court Wednesday to challenge it.
The Tennessee Republican filed a civil complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
It names former special counsel Jack Smith and the U.S. Department of Justice as defendants.
Blackburn states she first learned of the seizure on October 6, 2025, when congressional oversight disclosures brought it to light.
The subpoena behind it dates to May 25, 2023. On that day, a grand jury demanded her Verizon toll records.
Toll records list whom a person contacted, when the contact happened, and how long it lasted.
According to the filing, the subpoena did not seek the contents of any conversation. The period it covered included days around January 4–7, 2021.
Investigators issued the subpoena during Arctic Frost, an FBI investigation that Smith’s office later took over.
The probe examined President Donald Trump’s objections to the 2020 election and the January 6 Capitol protests.
Verizon could not tell Blackburn about the request. Smith’s office obtained a non-disclosure order that barred the company from notifying her.
The complaint alleges that the application for that order omitted a key fact. According to the filing, it never informed the presiding judge that the records belonged to a sitting U.S. senator.
Smith has addressed the order before Congress.
He testified that he approved the subpoenas, and that he understood the non-disclosure order meant the senators “didn’t have an opportunity to litigate the Speech or Debate concerns.”
The complaint also points to the calendar. Blackburn endorsed Trump’s 2024 campaign in April 2023. The subpoena landed just over a month later.
Blackburn’s lawsuit rests on four legal grounds. It contends the seizure violated the Speech or Debate Clause, the First Amendment right of association, the Fourth Amendment, and 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3).
The filing describes a warning inside the Justice Department.
It alleges that the department’s Public Integrity Section flagged D.C. Circuit precedent that treats the Speech or Debate Clause bar on compelled disclosure of legislative communications as absolute.
According to the complaint, Smith’s office moved ahead after assessing its litigation risk as low.
Blackburn’s complaint also targets the man at the center of the case. Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith in November 2022.
The filing states that then-President Joe Biden did not nominate him and that the Senate did not confirm him.
On that basis, Blackburn asks the court to declare Smith’s appointment unlawful under the Constitution’s Appointments Clause.
The complaint describes a much wider effort. It alleges Smith’s office subpoenaed toll records belonging to at least 20 members of Congress, all of them Republicans.
It further alleges investigators sought expansive records involving about 400 Republican individuals and organizations.
Public reporting and Senate Judiciary Committee disclosures have so far identified eight senators whose records investigators obtained. Blackburn is among them.
The complaint adds one more allegation, which it makes on information and belief. It states that the investigation name “Arctic Frost,” described as a type of orange, “was chosen to mock Trump’s complexion.”
Blackburn described her goal in a statement.
“Through his Arctic Frost witch hunt that targeted conservatives across America and even the President of the United States, Jack Smith perpetrated one of the worst abuses of government power in our nation’s history. This lawsuit is solely about holding Mr. Smith accountable and ensuring that our nation’s justice system can never again be weaponized against the American people,” Blackburn said.
