Raskin blasts 'blatantly corrupt' Senate deal allowing suits over secret phone record subpoenas

Source: The Hill

11/11/25 10:16 PM ET


The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee slammed a Senate-approved plan to reopen the government that would also pave the way for eight GOP senators to earn significant sums from litigation challenging the search of their phone records related to Jan. 6.

Tucked into the GOP proposal, which eight Democratic senators also approved, the bill requires telecommunications companies to alert senators if their data has been obtained. But it also allows those whose phone records were seized as part of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation to earn substantial sums from legal challenges stemming from the matter.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) called the provision “one of the most blatantly corrupt provisions for political self-dealing and the plunder of public resources ever proposed in Congress.” The provision, which is retroactive to 2022, only applies to members of the Senate and would allow them to sue for $500,000 if data was sought without their being notified, as well as once it was obtained.

“That’s a cool one million per Senator,” Raskin said in a statement. “There was no ‘phone tap’ or eavesdropping on the content of their conversations. The call records subpoenaed were the kind of information you see on a phone bill—a list of calls made and received,” he said, adding that the eight senators were “pathetically casting themselves as victims.”

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5601358-senate-phone-record-legal-challenge-raskin/