Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) is accepting credit for adding a provision to the bipartisan government funding bill that would award senators a half-million dollars for having their phone records collected as part of the Jan. 6 investigation.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who says he's one of the lawmakers whose data was subpoenaed by former special counsel Jack Smith in the probe, said Thune was responsible for the provision's inclusion in the bill to end the government shutdown, and a person close to the negotiations confirmed the GOP majority leader got it added, reported Politico.
“Leader Thune inserted that in the bill to provide real teeth to the prohibition on the Department of Justice targeting senators,” Cruz said.
The provision states that service providers must notify a Senate office of requests to disclose data about individual senators or their staffers, and it provides a cash bonus to senators who were targeted by Smith's probe and allows senators to sue the federal government for up to $500,000 for each violation of the provision.
“The abuse of power from the Biden Justice Department is the worst single instance of politicization our country has ever seen,” Cruz said. “I think it is Joe Biden’s Watergate, and the statutory prohibition needs to have real teeth and real consequences.”
Smith collected phone records for several Senate Republicans as he investigated President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, and the former special counsel has said he would gladly testify about the probe – but only in an open forum, which Republicans seems less eager to do.
“I am furious that the Senate Minority and Majority Leaders chose to airdrop this provision into this bill at the eleventh hour — with zero consultation or negotiation with the subcommittee that actually oversees this work,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), the top Democrat on the legislative branch subcommittee. “This is precisely what’s wrong with the Senate.
However, a Senate Democratic leadership aide explained the decision to include that provision.
“This protects the institution and Senators from an out of control Pam Bondi run Department of Justice,” that aide said.