The FBI swore up and down their investigation names were random.
James Comey looked America in the eye and promised there was nothing political about how they labeled their probes.
And Chuck Grassley just caught them in a lie so obvious even the mainstream media can't ignore it.
FBI Agents Caught Changing Trump Investigation Code Name In Handwritten Notes
Grassley dropped a bombshell this week after reviewing documents from FBI Director Kash Patel's team about the bureau's Arctic Frost investigation into Trump and the 2020 election.
The documents show FBI agents originally named the probe Hyperbolic Frost before someone physically crossed it out with a pen and wrote Arctic Frost instead.
That's not a computer glitch or an auto-correct mistake.
Someone sat down with a pen and deliberately changed the investigation's name.
"The renaming of the Trump investigation from Hyperbolic Frost to Arctic Frost via handwritten notes is clearly anything but random," Grassley wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Patel.
The handwritten edits appear on an early draft that the FBI produced in response to Grassley's document requests.
The same document also shows someone adding Trump himself as a subject.
Right next to a paragraph listing "members of Donald J. Trump for President, INC., both identified and yet to be identified" as subjects, someone scrawled "Add DJT" in the margins.
James Comey's Congressional Testimony About FBI Code Names Contradicted By Evidence
Back in May 2017, Grassley asked Comey about the FBI's investigation naming process during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
Grassley specifically questioned whether the Midyear Exam code name for Hillary Clinton's email investigation was chosen because it "needed to be finished before the Democratic National Convention."
Comey's response? Complete nonsense.
"There's an art and a science to how we come up with code names for cases," Comey testified. "They assure me it's done randomly."
"I can assure you the name was not selected for any nefarious purpose or because of any timing on the investigation," Comey added.
That testimony just became Exhibit A in how the FBI lies to Congress.
The physical evidence proves agents actively chose investigation names, crossed them out, and picked new ones.
FBI Trump Investigation Named After Orange Tree Variety
Here's where it gets even more suspicious.
Arctic Frost is the name of a variety of orange tree.
Trump's opponents have spent years mocking him by calling him "orange man" because of his distinctive appearance.
So the FBI named their investigation into Trump after a type of orange tree.
What are the odds that happened "randomly"?
Grassley is now demanding that Bondi and Patel "produce all records relating to the naming of Operation Midyear Exam, including former Director Comey's emails."
The Iowa Senator wants to know if the FBI lied about how they named the Clinton investigation too.
Special Counsel Jack Smith Subpoenaed 430 Republicans In Arctic Frost Investigation
Grassley and Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson have been investigating Arctic Frost since July 2022.
The probe targeted Trump and his 2024 campaign, but Special Counsel Jack Smith expanded it far beyond the President.
Smith subpoenaed phone records from nearly a dozen GOP Senators during the investigation.
He tracked private communications and calls from then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
He went after 197 subpoenas targeting Trump allies and Republican groups across Washington, D.C.
Smith's subpoenas requested records related to at least 430 named Republican individuals and entities.
"The recent records produced by the FBI contain even more damning evidence of the Biden administration's unapologetic abuse of power during the Arctic Frost investigation," Johnson told Fox News Digital.
Whistleblower records show "how partisan FBI agents and Department of Justice prosecutors opened, approved and advanced the investigation against President Trump and expanded its scope to other Republican groups and individuals."
This wasn't an investigation.
It was a fishing expedition designed to destroy Trump and anyone who supported him.
And they were dumb enough to leave handwritten notes proving it.
The FBI opened Arctic Frost in April 2022 under anti-Trump agent Timothy Thibault, who violated FBI protocols to launch the probe.
Thibault essentially opened and approved his own investigation, hand-picking subordinate agents to conceal his role.
Richard Pilger from the Department of Justice's Public Integrity Section reviewed and approved Arctic Frost.
The same Pilger who later helped kill investigations into Hillary Clinton's campaign.
The same Pilger who was "pivotal in reviewing and approving" Jack Smith's appointment as Special Counsel.
See the pattern?
The FBI wasted no time once they opened Arctic Frost.
Agents immediately went after Trump and Pence's government cell phones from the Biden White House.
They scheduled over a dozen interviews coordinated across 13 FBI field offices.
In just four days during June 2022, agents blew through $16,000 in taxpayer money to "conduct more than 40 interviews, serve subpoenas and execute several cellular device search warrants."
The investigation ultimately targeted 92 Republican organizations and individuals, including Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA, the Republican National Committee, and the America First Policy Institute.
Comey testified under oath that FBI investigation names were randomly selected with no political purpose.
The handwritten notes crossing out Hyperbolic Frost and replacing it with Arctic Frost — a type of orange tree — prove that was a lie.
Grassley has spent years exposing how the FBI protected Hillary Clinton while targeting Donald Trump.
Now he's caught them red-handed lying about something as simple as how they name their investigations.
If they'll lie about that under oath, what else have they lied about?
Sources:
- Brooke Singman, "Grassley presses FBI over Trump Arctic Frost probe name, calls change 'anything but random,'" Fox News, January 9, 2026.
- Senate Judiciary Committee, "Grassley, Johnson Make Public Whistleblower Records Revealing DOJ and FBI Plot to Pin Trump in Jack Smith Elector Case," January 30, 2025.
- Senate Judiciary Committee, "Biden FBI Spied on Eight Republican Senators as Part of Arctic Frost Investigation, Grassley Oversight Reveals," October 6, 2025.
- Senate Judiciary Committee, "NEW: Jack Smith Subpoenaed Records for Over 400 Republican Targets As Part of Arctic Frost," October 29, 2025.
