Garland’s DOJ Spied on Republican Senators, and Coach Tuberville Isn’t Letting It Slide

Guest Opinion by Perry O. Hooper Jr.

When the truth finally comes out, it usually does so in waves, and right now the wave crashing over Washington is the revelation that Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice spied on Republican senators, including Alabama’s own Tommy Tuberville, using secret subpoenas and buried FBI reports. This wasn’t rumor or speculation, it happened in 2023 when Garland and Jack Smith were running wild with their January 6 obsession. They used grand jury subpoenas to seize phone metadata, so-called toll records, from nine sitting Republican senators and one GOP congressman. That metadata showed who they called. When they called. How long they talked. Even where they were when the calls happened. It didn’t record the words, but it mapped every line of communication. That’s surveillance by any reasonable definition.

Let that sink in for a second, the Biden-Garland DOJ was spying on sitting U.S. Senators. For two years the operation stayed hidden, buried deep in FBI case files, until FBI Director Kash Patel, serving under President Donald J. Trump, ordered a full internal review of political cases from the Biden era. That’s when Patel’s team discovered the September 27, 2023 “CAST Assistance” memo describing the “preliminary toll analysis” on Senate phone numbers. The memo confirmed what many suspected, that Garland’s DOJ treated political opponents like criminal suspects.

Patel deserves credit for shining a light on it. He has already confirmed that two agents involved in the subpoenas have been fired, and that more disciplinary actions are pending. Congress has launched investigations, and the Justice Department can’t hide behind “ongoing matter” excuses anymore. The cover-up is unraveling. They called it justice, but it was revenge. They called it law enforcement, but it was politics.

For Senator Tuberville, this isn’t politics, it’s personal. “I was just shocked to learn during an FBI briefing that Jack Smith nacred on myself and seven other Senators during his made-up January 6th probe into President Trump,” Tuberville said. “Make no mistake, Joe Biden was surveilling the phones of U.S. Senators to try to punish his opponent, President Donald Trump. It’s an absolute disgrace, and someone needs to go to jail.” Later, on radio, he added, “I was just brought into a briefing 30 or 40 minutes ago by the FBI, they informed us that eight or nine Senators’ phones were tracked, now I know why I was on that list, because I’m a friend with Donald Trump, I’m an ally.”

Coach Tuberville spent his career teaching young men to stand their ground, and he’s doing it again, this time in the U.S. Senate. When you challenge the swamp, the swamp fights back, but the coach doesn’t back down.

And he’s not the only one who’s furious. Louisiana’s Senator John Kennedy is joining Tuberville in demanding a full, speedy investigation. He’s calling for immediate testimony from DOJ and FBI officials and wants to know why the telecom companies caved without notifying the Senate. “The American people deserve to know who signed those subpoenas, why the carriers rolled over, and how this was even legal,” Kennedy said. “This can’t drag on. We need a full accounting, and we need it now.” Kennedy is pressing for hearings in both Judiciary Committees and has made it clear that Garland’s DOJ owed the truth to Congress, and they lied by omission.

This isn’t a one-off scandal; it’s the defining example of how far the left went to weaponize federal power. Garland’s DOJ and Jack Smith’s team targeted senators not for crimes, but for loyalties. They were trying to intimidate anyone still standing with President Trump. Now, under Patel’s leadership and with President Trump back in office, the truth is finally being forced into the open. Garland’s DOJ issued the subpoenas, Smith’s prosecutors executed them, the FBI gathered the data, and Patel found the receipts.

As President Trump said this week, “We will never again allow the Deep State to weaponize our government against its own people.” That’s exactly what this moment is about.

Senator Tuberville is right to be angry, Senator Kennedy is right to demand speed, and every American who believes in equal justice should be paying attention. Because if a partisan DOJ can secretly spy on sitting United States senators, then no citizen’s privacy means anything. This is the moment to draw the line, to hold Garland’s operatives accountable, to protect our institutions from political corruption, and to restore the principle that the government serves the people, not the other way around.

This country was built on courage, not compliance. From Montgomery to Mobile, from Huntsville to Dothan, the people of Alabama are watching, and they stand with Coach Tuberville.

It’s time to clean house. Garland’s swamp ran on fear and secrecy. President Trump’s America runs on truth and sunlight, and the cleanup has only just begun.

Perry O. Hooper Jr. is a longtime Alabama Republican figure, former Alabama Legislator and Montgomery businessman. He served as Co-Chair of “Alabama Trump Victory” in 2016, and served as an at-large delegate to the Republican National Convention. He is a noted civic leader in Montgomery with deep family roots in Alabama’s legal and political history.

Opinions do not reflect the views and opinions of ALPolitics.com. ALPolitics.com makes no claims nor assumes any responsibility for the information and opinions expressed above.