One year ago, when whistleblowers first revealed that special counsel Jack Smith and the FBI had targeted Republican senators in a highly secretive and unconstitutional spying operation, I immediately picked up the phone and called my close friend and colleague Jim Jordan.

“Jim, there is no way that we weren’t spied on,” I said. “There’s a larger list and my hunch is that we’re both on it.”

Smith’s surveillance operation, dubbed Arctic Frost, was part of the obsessive and sustained illegal witch hunt aimed at President Donald Trump, his political allies and his voters.

And for years, Rep. Jordan and I had been two of the most outspoken leaders in the House of Representatives against illegal weaponization — going back to our time on the Intelligence Committee, when we served on the defense team during the first illegal impeachment attempt of the president’s first term.

Now, thanks to the great, dogged oversight work of Chairman Chuck Grassley, Sen. Ron Johnson and others, we know that my instinct was right: The sweeping weaponization is wide and deep — and is an attack on the Constitution and the American people.

Unlawful access

Americans have long suspected that Joe Biden’s hand-picked special prosecutor weaponized government at the highest levels, in part by unconstitutionally spying on members of Congress — including me — and by perjuring himself when Congress questioned him about it.

On Tuesday, newly declassified records confirmed exactly that.

Smith’s team unlawfully and unconstitutionally accessed my private text messages, along with 43 other members of Congress, in clear violation of the Constitution.

They not only spied on the existence of text messages concerning our legislative and constitutional duties to represent our constituents and vote on their behalf; they illegally accessed the content of those messages, too.

Then, when asked by House members directly and under oath whether he had surveilled those messages’ contents, Jack Smith perjured himself and claimed that he had not.

It was a lie — and knowingly making false statements to Congress is a federal crime, punishable by up to five years in prison.

As President Trump has always said, the illegal weaponization of judicial power that has plagued him for the last decade was never just about him — it was directed against all his supporters, and anyone who spoke out against these abuses.

Now we see that the weaponization targeted duly elected members of Congress, too — and by extension, our constituents.

This is not an isolated incident.

It’s just the latest, most egregious example of a widespread and dangerous effort to turn the federal government’s powers against Americans themselves.

It’s the worst such attempt in our nation’s history, and I have spent years fighting to expose it.

Criminal consequences

As a leading member of the House Intelligence Committee and the Select Committee on Weaponization, I have worked to investigate and expose a string of these interconnected abuses: the Biden administration’s collusion with Big Tech to censor Americans, the FBI’s illegal targeting of traditional Catholics and of parents at school boards, the Russia collusion hoax, lawfare against President Trump and his allies, and more — all part of a broader pattern of illegal deep-state actions against political opponents.

It is what led me to go to the mat against the Speaker of the House to pass a key provision in the Intelligence Authorization Act and close the “Comey loophole,” so that Congress is now required by law to be notified of any counter-intelligence investigation into a federal candidate or elected official.

The bombshell records revealed by the Senate Judiciary Committee this week confirm that unaccountable special counsels and federal agencies did in fact use their power to secretly and unconstitutionally surveil elected representatives without proper legal process.

Accessing the private communications of lawmakers is an assault on the separation of powers, on congressional independence, and on the constitutional rights of every American.

There must be criminal consequences for this egregious, unconstitutional and illegal abuse of power.

That means prosecution for those responsible — and quickly enacting strong reforms to prevent any presidential administration, now or in the future, from wielding government tools against Americans or their elected representatives.

Abuse of power

The American people sent us to Washington to defend the Constitution, not to let it be shredded by politically motivated investigators.

I will continue leading the fight against this appalling abuse of power until we achieve real accountability and lasting change.

That’s what President Trump means when he says we must drain the swamp — because, even now, it continues to be shocking just how deep its weaponized muck goes.

Elise Stefanik represents New York’s 21st District in Congress.