The Trump Justice Department privately reviewed the communications of a wider pool of people than previously known in its efforts to track down leakers, obtaining the records of more than 40 congressional staffers along with two Democratic lawmakers and several journalists.
The detail comes as the department’s Office of Inspector General reviewed the Trump administration’s efforts to track down those who may have leaked information about the Justice Department’s investigations related to the 2016 election, a bombshell first revealed in 2021 after the Biden Justice Department moved in court to lift the nondisclosure orders originally sought by their predecessors.
The department in 2017 accessed the records of Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwall, both Democrats of California, as well as reporters for CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times.
The report concludes that seeking the records of lawmaker and staffers did not violate any Justice Department policies on the books at the time but that the move nonetheless “risks chilling Congress’s ability to conduct oversight of the executive branch…and creat[es], at a minimum, the appearance of inappropriate interference by the executive branch in legitimate oversight activity by the legislative branch.”
And though not required, the Justice Department never informed the court that it was seeking records for members of Congress or congressional staffers.
The report also concluded that the agents seeking the records were not motivated by political animous as they sought the records of 21 Democratic staffers, 20 Republicans staffers, and two nonpartisan staffers, who, like the lawmaker, go unnamed in the report. Instead it was their “close proximity” in receiving information they were entitled to through their jobs and the publishing of news articles.
CNN reports that Kash Patel, Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, was among those whose records were obtained. Patel has previously complained about the matter, writing in a newsletter, “The DOJ illegally spied on me during the Russia Gate investigation!” Patel last year sued the Justice Department for secretly seeking access to his personal email account.
The report found that the Justice Department did violate some its policies when seeking the communications of eight different journalists at the three outlets.
It noted that the department failed to obtain the required Director of National Intelligence certification in one investigation and it’s unclear if they provided that certification to then-Attorney General Bill Barr before he signed off on another investigation.
The department also failed to get Barr’s “express authorization” for the nondisclosure orders that prevented Google and other tech companies from informing the reporters.
“DOJ had substantially overhauled its News Media Policy in 2014 and 2015 following serious criticisms concerning DOJ’s efforts to obtain communications records of members of the news media,” the report stated.
“We were troubled that these failures occurred only a few years after this overhaul.”
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