A retired Justice Department inspector general special agent who helped serve subpoenas in the Arctic Frost investigation testified that he was not told some of the phone records being sought belonged to members of Congress.
Brian Burnett, who retired in late 2024 after 15 years with the Justice Department Office of Inspector General, told House Judiciary Committee investigators that prosecutors generally provided him with phone numbers without identifying the subscribers attached to them.
One of those numbers was later linked to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who at the time was the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee.
“I would’ve subpoenaed the number, but I did not know who the phone number belonged to, who the actual subscriber was,” Burnett testified.
Burnett said he only became aware of the possible connection to Jordan after he had already retired and reports about the subpoena began appearing publicly.
“It was not until I had been retired and this was on the news and there was conversation about Mr. Jordan’s toll records being subpoenaed and then there was a subpoena that came up on the internet,” Burnett said.
He added that the subpoena circulating publicly carried his name, which led him to assume the number in question had belonged to Jordan.
Burnett nevertheless stressed that he could not personally confirm that detail, telling investigators he still did not know for certain whether the phone number was Jordan’s.
When asked whether prosecutors had informed him that he was serving a subpoena involving the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, Burnett said he had no recollection of receiving that information.
He said knowing the subscriber’s identity could have caused him to raise concerns with his supervisor about whether additional procedures or safeguards were required before moving forward.
“That would’ve been something I would’ve brought up to my supervisor, if there was a different process or something we needed to be doing if we were going to do that,” Burnett testified.
According to testimony cited in the report, the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section had approved the investigative step involving Jordan’s records in April 2022 and was aware of the subscriber’s identity.
Former Smith team prosecutor Timothy “Tad” Duree reportedly testified that the Public Integrity Section had reviewed and approved the move.
Burnett, however, said he was only given the phone number and not the name attached to it.
He described that as consistent with how the records were typically presented to him, saying prosecutors would generally provide “just phone numbers.”
Burnett also told congressional investigators that the overall structure of the Arctic Frost investigation differed significantly from what he had encountered during approximately 30 years in law enforcement.
He explained that investigators would normally develop familiarity with a case, pursue leads and determine which subpoenas or other investigative steps were necessary as the evidence developed, per Trending Politics.
In Arctic Frost, Burnett said many of those decisions instead came directly from prosecutors.
“A normal investigation would be, I would do the investigation, become familiar with everything, you know, do grand jury subpoenas, do the normal investigative process, follow the normal investigative steps,” he testified.
“But, in this case, those steps were given to us by the prosecution team,” Burnett added.
Asked whether he had ever encountered a similar arrangement during his law enforcement career, Burnett responded, “Not in my entire 30 years of law enforcement.”
Arctic Frost was the FBI’s name for its investigation into efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The investigation was later transferred to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office after Smith was appointed in November 2022.
The broader investigation also included a June 2023 subpoena issued by Smith’s office to the National Archives and Records Administration.
That subpoena sought text messages from October 2020 through Jan. 20, 2021, connected to phones used by White House personnel during President Donald Trump’s first administration.
The records reportedly involved Trump, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and other officials.
Burnett’s testimony adds another layer to congressional scrutiny of how investigators handled records involving lawmakers and how much information was shared with agents carrying out those investigative steps.
Smith is expected to testify before the House Judiciary Committee next week as lawmakers continue examining the scope and methods used during the investigation.
