Judicial Watch Sues FBI for Records on January 6 Committee’s Transfer of 30 Million Phone Records

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for records concerning the House January 6 Select Committee’s transfer of approximately 30 million lines of telephone toll data to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) (Judicial Watch, Inc., v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:26-cv-02557)).

The lawsuit was filed after the FBI failed to comply with an October 2025 FOIA request for:

• Communications of former Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Denver Riggleman (R-VA) with FBI officials regarding the reported acquisition or offer to provide the telephone toll data.
• All FBI records and internal communications regarding the reported acquisition or offer to provide the telephone toll data collected by the House January 6 Committee.

In February 2022, the FBI opened “Arctic Frost,” an investigation into alleged efforts by Trump campaign associates to obstruct Congress’s certification of the 2020 election. The probe aggressively targeted dozens of GOP officials and organizations before closing in January 2025.

A December 2023 FBI FD-302 interview summary reveals that Kinzinger proactively offered the January 6 Committee’s massive database to the FBI. The summary states:

Kinzinger stated the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol (the “Select Committee”) collected and linked a substantial amount of telephone data, and noted the FBI may already possess such data. While former Congressman Denver Riggleman worked with the Select Committee, he (Riggleman) had a contact and was able to obtain toll information, including for White House “root” or switchboard numbers via congressional subpoena. Kinzinger noted that he (Kinzinger) did not conduct the analysis himself, but that Riggleman had identified certain telephonic connections between numbers identified as being associated with the White House and certain individuals….

Kinzinger indicated that Riggleman may have never received direction on what to do with the toll data, which included approximately 30 million lines of data. Kinzinger believed it was in an electronic format, but did not know if it was the original [redacted] returns.

In October 2025, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary reported that “the FBI targeted eight Republican senators’ personal cell phones for ‘tolling data’ as part of its Arctic Frost investigation. One Republican member of the House of Representatives was also impacted. The Arctic Frost investigation formed the basis of [Special Counsel] Jack Smith’s elector case against President Donald Trump.”

“The FBI must stop concealing the truth. Thirty million lines of Americans’ phone records weaponized by a partisan committee and federal investigators against President Trump and his supporters represents one of the most brazen abuses of power in modern history,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The American people deserve every record — no more stonewalling.”

Judicial Watch has conducted a massive, independent investigation into the events of January 6.

On July 6, 2026, the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department released to Judicial Watch over 1,000 hours of body-worn camera footage in 1,627 videos from the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol event. The videos were released because of an April 2026 court ruling in a DC FOIA lawsuit. The videos are available via the Judicial Watch website here.

In August 2025, Judicial Watch announced that the U.S. Air Force would finally provide full military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran who was shot and killed inside the U.S. Capitol by then-Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd on January 6, 2021. Babbitt was the only official January 6 homicide victim. The Biden administration had previously denied Babbitt and her family these honors in retaliation for being at the U.S. Capitol that day. This decision came on the heels of a massive, nearly $5 million Trump administration settlement to her family for wrongful death and other claims against the U.S. Government.

In July 2025, Judicial Watch sued the Justice Department for records on accelerated January 6 prosecutions after Trump was elected president in November 2024. The Biden administration, anticipating President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to issue pardons for January 6, 2021, defendants, is believed to have accelerated prosecutions in the final months of Biden’s term.

In March 2024, Judicial Watch received Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) records from the Justice Department in a FOIA lawsuit that showed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) deployed personnel to Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021.

October 2023, Judicial Watch received the declaration of James W. Joyce, senior counsel in the Office of the General Counsel for the Capitol Police, in which he describes emails among senior officials of the United States Capitol Police (USCP) in January 2021 that show warnings of possible January 6 protests that could lead to serious disruptions at the U.S. Capitol.

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Source: https://www.judicialwatch.org/j6-30-million-phone-records/