Grassley presses FBI over Trump Arctic Frost probe name, calls change ‘anything but random’
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FIRST ON FOX: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley is demanding answers about the process by which the FBI determines code names for its investigations, after receiving documents showing agents “renamed” the Arctic Frost investigation into President Donald Trump, with the senator calling the move “anything but random.”
Grassley wrote a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel raising questions about the process, after Patel’s team turned over documents requested by the committee regarding the FBI’s Arctic Frost investigation into Trump and the 2020 election.
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Documents revealed that the investigation was first named “Hyperbolic Frost” and then changed to “Arctic Frost.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley is demanding answers about the process by which the FBI determines code names for its investigations. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“In response to our document requests, your agencies have produced a document that shows changes were made to an early version of a draft Arctic Frost opening document,” Grassley wrote. “This document has several handwritten edits, including removing the original name of the investigation, ‘Hyperbolic Frost,'” and renaming it “Arctic Frost.”
Grassley said the document “calls into question the accuracy of the testimony” former FBI Director James Comey gave him during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on May 3, 2017.
“At this hearing, I asked whether the Clinton investigation was named Operation Midyear because it had to be completed before the Democratic National Convention? If so, why the artificial delay? If not, why was that called?” Grassley shared.
Grassley was referring to “Midyear Exam,” which was the FBI’s code name for the bureau’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
Former FBI Director James Comey speaks at a hearing at the Capitol on May 3, 2017. (Associated Press)
Comey replied: “Certainly not because it had to be finished by a specific date.”
“There’s an art and a science to how we come up with code names for cases,” Comey said at the time. “I’m assured it’s done randomly. Sometimes I see ones that make me smile, so I’m not sure.”
Comey added: “But I can assure you it was called Midyear Exam, that was the name of the case. I can assure you the name was not chosen for any nefarious purpose or because of the timing of the investigation.”
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But Grassley said “the renaming of the Trump investigation from ‘Hyperbolic Frost’ to ‘Arctic Frost’ via handwritten notes is clearly anything but random.”
Former Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith enters a room in the Rayburn House office building to give his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, as part of its oversight of the Justice Department’s investigations into President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)
Sources believe the investigation’s title could allude to the investigation’s intended target: Trump.
Sources state that “Arctic Frost” is also the name of a variety of orange tree. The president’s opponents mocked him and called him an “orange man.”
Grassley demands that Bondi and Patel “produce all documents relating to the naming of Operation Midyear Exam, including emails from former Director Comey.”
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, then-Democratic presidential candidate, speaks while then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump listens during the town hall at Washington University October 9, 2016 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Rick Wilking-Pool/Getty Images)
Documents produced by the FBI this week also show handwritten notes discussing topics from the Arctic Frost investigation.
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“Subjects of the investigation include members of Donald J. Trump for President, INC., both identified and not yet identified,” the document states.
Next to this paragraph is a handwritten note reading: “Add DJT.”
Grassley and Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, have been investigating the origins of the Arctic Frost probe since July 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Grassley and Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, have been investigating the origins of the Arctic Frost probe since July 2022.
The senators released whistleblower files that they said “revealed how partisan FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors opened, approved, and advanced the investigation against President Trump and expanded its scope to other Republican groups and individuals.”
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“Recent documents produced by the FBI contain even more damning evidence of the Biden administration’s shameless abuse of power during the Arctic Frost investigation,” Johnson, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital. “The American people deserve to know the full extent of Jack Smith’s massive partisan sweep that targeted law-abiding American citizens.”
He added: “President Grassley and I will continue to fight to ensure that the full truth is revealed. »
