Verdict with Ted Cruz - March 26, 2026


BONUS POD： Arctic Frost Unfrozen — What the Senate Just Revealed


Episode Stats


Length

13 minutes

Words per minute

143.6579

Word count

1,888

Sentence count

94

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

A modern-day Watergate, we re diving into the bombshell Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Arctic Frost and how the Biden administration used a secret code name to spy on anyone and everyone connected to Donald Trump and his associates.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
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00:00:20.120 If our Republican majority stand up for these priorities,
00:00:23.820 the American people will stand with us in record numbers.
00:00:27.460 We have to be strong, we have to be tough,
00:00:29.440 And we can't let these thugs on the other side of the aisle push us around, because what they're doing right now is wrong.
00:00:36.660 And the public knows it. Now the public knows it. And they're on our side.
00:00:40.420 But you have to fight and you have to be tough. You have to be much tougher.
00:00:43.760 And you have to stick together. Republicans have to stick together.
00:00:47.440 You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
00:00:51.420 Good Thursday morning. Nice to have you with us on the 47 Morning Update.
00:00:54.920 It's called a modern-day Watergate.
00:00:58.460 We've got a deep dive into the bombshell Senate Judiciary hearing on Arctic Frost.
00:01:03.700 And now what we know about Jack Smith.
00:01:06.300 He was spying on anyone that he could that was connected to Donald Trump
00:01:10.560 and then trying to create crimes out of thin air.
00:01:15.340 Will some of these people be held accountable?
00:01:18.020 That's exactly what the Senate Judiciary Committee is doing as we speak.
00:01:22.460 And we've got the highlights.
00:01:23.780 It's the 47 Morning Update, and it starts right now.
00:01:27.460 Story number one.
00:01:28.600 We are learning a lot more now in the bombshell Senate Judiciary hearing on Arctic Frost
00:01:34.340 and exactly just how corrupt the Biden administration really was.
00:01:39.560 Now, before I get into what the Senate Judiciary Committee told us today,
00:01:44.580 let me just remind you what Arctic Frost was all about.
00:01:48.460 It was the internal code name tied to that federal investigation effort that was launched during the Biden-era Department of Justice, an operation that, according to multiple whistleblowers and internal memos, now is coming to light.
00:02:04.280 It was designed to track and build cases tied to election-related activity, political organizing, and what officials labeled as domestic extremism risk networks.
00:02:16.980 Now, on paper, it was framed as a national security initiative, but the reality was it was all about doing political surveillance on Donald Trump and many of his allies.
00:02:31.040 And now, thanks to the Senate Judiciary hearing, we're getting a much clearer picture of what was really going on behind the scenes.
00:02:38.760 The hearing turned into nothing short of a political earthquake.
00:02:43.140 Senators revealed new testimony and internal communications tied directly to Special Counsel Jack Smith
00:02:49.520 and what he allegedly demanded during the height of Arctic Frost and the operation.
00:02:56.640 Now, according to the documents that were presented during the hearing,
00:03:01.920 Smith pushed for expanded authority to subpoena communications tied not just to suspects,
00:03:09.000 but to broader networks of individuals.
00:03:13.220 He reportedly advocated for aggressive timelines,
00:03:17.620 demanding prosecutors move faster than traditional thresholds would normally allow.
00:03:24.360 And most explosively, lawmakers revealed discussions suggesting an effort
00:03:30.080 to directly link political speech and organizing activity to potential criminal exposure.
00:03:37.620 Let me say that again. This wasn't just about investigating crimes. They wanted you to believe that. But what it was actually about was weaponizing and redefining what could be considered a crime to lock up Donald Trump and his allies.
00:03:54.520 Now, according to testimony, Smith wanted broader use of material witness warrants, even in cases where individuals had not been charged.
00:04:07.160 That is what you call a phishing exploration, hoping to find a crime with no crime that had actually been committed that you knew about.
00:04:15.600 He supported also using digital surveillance tools to map associations between the political activists that he wanted to go after.
00:04:27.220 That was the tree connected to Donald Trump at the top.
00:04:31.360 And he reportedly pushed the Department of Justice teams to build cases, as he described it, outward.
00:04:38.680 meaning start first with a target aka donald trump or one of his associates and then expand
00:04:46.980 the net until something actionable is found or appeared this is a stunning admission by those
00:04:56.720 at the hearing making it clear that yes they didn't know of any crimes have been committed
00:05:02.260 by trump or anyone around him they instead just said we're going to pick someone and then
00:05:08.520 find a crime that we can charge them with to shut them down politically this literally flips the
00:05:15.040 entire justice system on its head now in america you investigate a crime and then find a suspect
00:05:21.840 but not under the biden administration or regime they picked the target first then went looking
00:05:28.920 for a crime that they could create out of thin air yes this is a grotesque abuse of power
00:05:36.600 Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee did not hold back.
00:05:42.100 They described Arctic Frost as a weaponized pipeline inside the DOJ,
00:05:47.300 a system that allowed federal prosecutors to test legal theories on political opponents,
00:05:52.480 and a framework that risked turning the justice system into a tool of intimidation. 0.80
00:05:58.960 Several senators pointed to internal language,
00:06:02.220 suggesting that traditional safeguards, probable cause, evidentiary thresholds,
00:06:09.540 prosecutorial restraints were seen as quote-unquote just obstacles
00:06:14.000 rather than protections of those that are innocent.
00:06:18.720 And that's where the abuse of power argument became central.
00:06:22.360 Because if federal authority is used not just to enforce the law
00:06:26.540 but to reinterpret it and apply it selectively,
00:06:30.240 then you don't just have a legal issue you have a constitutional one now president trump responded
00:06:37.360 swiftly and forcefully in remarks following the hearing trump described the revelations as
00:06:43.100 one of the most dangerous abuse of powers ever uncovered in washington president trump didn't
00:06:50.480 stop there he also went on to say that arctic frost was a coordinated effort to silence political
00:06:56.700 opposition under the guise of law enforcement. Trump also reiterated a court argument he made
00:07:03.380 repeatedly. The federal agencies were turned against the American people. And that was clearly
00:07:10.160 revealed in the hearing. And it proves the system was rigged at the highest levels. Now, if you want
00:07:16.020 to know just how political this was, I want you to take a listen to this part of the shocking
00:07:22.300 amount of data that came out. Senator Cruz confirming that Biden's FBI wiretapped the
00:07:30.360 current White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles during a privileged call with her lawyer without
00:07:37.980 the consent of either party. Yes, so much for client privilege with your attorney. No, they
00:07:46.760 said, we don't care. We want to listen in because we're trying to find anything we can on Donald
00:07:53.180 Trump. Jack Smith issued nearly 200 subpoenas. Is that correct? Yes. Those subpoenas targeted over
00:08:02.960 400 Republican individuals and organizations, correct? Correct. Many of whom had no connection
00:08:09.300 to those who entered the Capitol on January 6th, correct? Absolutely. And in fact, some of those
00:08:15.680 organizations didn't even exist on January 6th. Is that correct? It is. So we're not talking about
00:08:21.980 a narrow investigation. We're talking about a sweeping operation targeting virtually the
00:08:27.780 entirety of the other side politically. It was a fishing expedition. So let's turn to the
00:08:34.200 Constitution. Subpoenaing the toll records of members of Congress, does that raise serious
00:08:38.480 constitutional concerns? Absolutely. And in fact, we have the PIN who notified the special
00:08:45.000 Counsel's Office of those concerns. And Jack Smith had apparently said that he was going to
00:08:52.000 consult with the Solicitor General, according to the release of the information from Senator
00:09:00.320 Grassley this morning. Yet when he was deposed by the House and was specifically asked if he
00:09:06.660 spoke with the Solicitor General. He said, on this discreet issue, no.
00:09:14.160 Among other issues, it raises significant issues with the speech and debate clause, correct?
00:09:19.120 Absolutely.
00:09:20.020 So much so that, as you noted, when Jack Smith subpoenaed AT&T to get my toll records,
00:09:27.240 AT&T refused to comply with the subpoena because they concluded that it violated the speech and
00:09:32.320 debate clause. Is that correct?
00:09:34.440 Absolutely correct, and they backed down.
00:09:37.700 Jack Smith did not try to enforce that subpoena, did he?
00:09:40.040 He did not.
00:09:40.920 He did not go to court and litigate the matter, did he?
00:09:43.160 He did not.
00:09:44.300 Does that suggest, as it does to me, that he knew damn well what he was doing was illegal and would not be upheld in court?
00:09:50.840 It does suggest that.
00:09:52.040 When the federal government subpoenas, donor lists, internal communications, organization records, does that implicate the First Amendment and also Freedom Association in particular?
00:10:05.420 It does, and the Supreme Court made that clear in the NAACP case.
00:10:10.780 Mr. Chamberlain, aside from the legal violations, what specific crimes, if any, were actually uncovered as a result of the Arctic Frost investigation?
00:10:23.540 I'm not aware of any crimes that were uncovered.
00:10:26.780 Would the senators, donors, organizations and individuals who were surveilled and subpoenaed have ever learned about the Arctic Frost investigation had Trump not won in 2024?
00:10:37.580 for probably not uh mainly because of these non-disclosure orders uh but also i mean the
00:10:44.400 fact that a lot of these records are we're now just learning about them because they were in
00:10:47.800 these prohibited access files only available to their fbi director so if the fbi director was a
00:10:52.480 democrat there's no reason to think we know about them how would you compare the scope uh of the
00:10:58.900 violations in arctic frost to watergate i i think if anything it might even be greater uh i mean
00:11:05.820 the scope of this in terms of the sheer number of people and organizations affected um and as i
00:11:11.460 discussed i mean this brazen violation of attorney-client privilege wiretapping a phone call
00:11:15.740 between suzy wiles and her lawyer um these are egregious offenses and and you know if watergate 1.00
00:11:21.500 was just about a single break-in i mean this is effectively you know compound that by 200.
00:11:26.480 you may have heard that shocking revelation no crimes were found in operation arctic frost
00:11:33.400 because it wasn't about crimes it was about framing your political opponent and trying to
00:11:39.880 entrap them and charge them with crimes that you made out of thin air senator cruz wrapped it up
00:11:45.460 perfectly when he said this at the judiciary hearing watergate was about a handful of files
00:11:51.140 in a single office this reached into tens of thousands of private communications emails
00:11:57.520 records, and personal data. Toll records, bank records, donor lists, law firm records,
00:12:06.500 and other personal files relating to every major conservative organization were subpoenaed.
00:12:13.780 That is a perfect example of just how widespread the abuse of power really was. And now the
00:12:21.300 question is, will those that abuse their power be held to account? That's exactly what the
00:12:26.800 Judiciary Committee seems to be working towards. And not only were they going after the president,
00:12:32.580 they were also going after major conservative organizations, Turning Point USA, America First
00:12:40.580 Policy Institute, even the Republican National Committee. So this may be just the tip of the
00:12:47.540 iceberg. Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit
00:12:53.600 subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now and for more in-depth news
00:12:58.980 also subscribe to the ben ferguson podcast and we will see you back here tomorrow
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