FBI’s ‘Arctic Frost’ probe into Jan. 6 investigated Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA

On Sept. 10 2025, the conservative activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot on the campus of Utah Valley University. Kirk was speaking at the first stop of a campus tour put on by the nonprofit organization he co-founded in 2012, Turning Point USA.

Following Kirk’s death, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, released a document he claimed proved that an FBI investigation code-named Arctic Frost, initially formed to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, had investigated Turning Point USA among other Republican groups.

Conservative news outlets such as Fox News and the New York Post reported on Grassley’s statement, and the claim that the FBI’s Arctic Frost probe “targeted” around 100 Republican organizations, including Kirk’s, spread on social media. 

(Facebook page The Federalist Papers)

The FBI under former President Biden launched a sweeping investigation called “Arctic Frost” that included major Republican organizations and conservative groups, according to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

Grassley revealed whistleblower evidence at a Senate Judiciary hearing showing the probe, which began with 2020 election challenges, later expanded to 92 Republican targets such as the RNC, the Republican Attorneys General Association, and Turning Point USA.

“Arctic Frost wasn’t just a case to politically investigate Trump,” Grassley said. “It was the vehicle by which partisan FBI agents and Department of Justice prosecutors could achieve their partisan ends and improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus.”

The posts are correct that Turning Point USA was part of a larger FBI investigation, although they used charged language to paint that investigation as politically motivated. Here’s what we know:

The background

On Jan. 6, 2021, following a rally in front of the White House, supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol. Inside, lawmakers were certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden. The riot’s purpose was to stop that certification, delaying the peaceful transfer of power.

In 2022, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith as a special counsel to investigate Trump over his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, including his actions on Jan. 6. The charges against Trump were eventually dropped after the Supreme Court ruled he could not be prosecuted for “official acts.”

That case, according to internal FBI documents released by Grassley, was named Arctic Frost. In a September 2025 statement issued alongside the new document, Grassley called Arctic Frost “the vehicle by which partisan FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors could achieve their partisan ends and improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus.”

(Republicans have calling the investigation into the events of Jan. 6 “partisan” since at least 2022, despite many of them initially condemning the violence and connecting it to Trump).

Turning Point USA’s involvement

Grassley’s document was a list of subpoenas issued by the FBI as part of its investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The subpoenas mainly appeared to target financial institutions — many were annotated as being related to “wire fraud” or “misappropriation.”

One subpoena was issued to a live events company called Event Strategies, which held the organizing permit for the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the riot, according to USA Today. Under the column of “targets,” Kirk’s Organization Turning Point USA was listed alongside 10 other organizations, including Trump’s PAC Save America, Women for America First and the Republican Attorneys General Association. 

The subpoena was issued, according to the document, on the “thread” of “J 6$.” In other words, the subpoena appeared to be looking to determine whether Turning Point USA and other organizations provided money to Event Strategies for the rally. 

A monetary connection makes sense — according to a Tweet posted and later deleted by Kirk, Turning Point USA’s advocacy arm, Turning Point Action, sent “80+ buses full of patriots to DC” so supporters could attend Trump’s rally. A Washington Post story from Jan. 17, 2021, noted that the Republican Attorneys General Association and Women for America First helped plan the Jan. 6 rally. 

Sources