An internal watchdog found that the Justice Department failed to follow department policy and ignored some established protections when seeking records from members of Congress, dozens of congressional staffers and members of the media during the first Trump administration.
A report By the Office of the Inspector General of the Department released on tuesday Several leak investigations launched between 2017 and 2020 by the Justice Department and the FBI focused on determining how eight journalists from the Washington Post, the New York Times, and CNN obtained classified information that appeared in the reports. The data mostly consisted of metadata about emails and phone calls, and did not include the content of the communications.
In 2017, FBI investigators looked into members of Congress and their staff as potential sources of various news reports, ultimately obtaining data from two Democratic lawmakers and 43 congressional staffers from both parties. Inspector General Michael Horowitz criticized the large number of congressional staffers whose information was obtained, and urged the department to implement stronger policies to protect the data of members of Congress and their staff.
,[D]”Dozens of congressional staffers became part of the subject pool in federal criminal investigations for doing nothing more than carrying out constitutionally authorized surveillance of the executive branch,” the report said. 2023 lawsuit Against the Justice Department, Kash Patel, Trump's pick to serve as FBI director in the incoming administration, said he was one of those staffers when he worked for the House Intelligence Committee. Patel charged that the collection was “a complete violation of the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution.”
The inspector general also revealed that two lawmakers were targeted because a Democratic staffer “identified them to investigators as potential leakers, but without providing any evidence for the claim.”
CBS News Reported in 2021 Justice Department prosecutors subpoenaed Apple for data from the accounts of California Representatives Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell as they investigate the leak of classified information related to contacts between associates of President-elect Donald Trump and Russia in the early days of the Trump administration. Was. Both men criticized the investigative steps at the time. Schiff was sworn in this week as the next senator from California and Swalwell remains in the House.
A total of four undercover investigations were conducted, all of which were closed without any criminal charges. The investigation came to public attention in 2021, when the Biden administration informed three news organizations that their records had been swept up in the Trump-era investigation. Post, many times And cnn Each announced and condemned the revelations at the time.
Specifically, the Inspector General's review stated that there was no evidence that the investigation was influenced by politics or other improper considerations. The report also said that some of the processes and approvals that are required now did not exist at the time.
However, the report said the decision to go after communications from staff and members of Congress “imposed the constitutional rights and privileges of officials or co-equal branches of government.”
Such conduct, the report argues, “jeopardizes Congress's ability to oversee the executive branch.” The inspector general said there was no fixed department policy on the matter and most decision-making was left to line prosecutors on cases. As a result, the report called for further safeguards and policy changes, some of which have been implemented.
Unlike investigations of members of Congress, Justice Department policy dictates that prosecutors must prove they have “exhausted” other avenues before secretly obtaining records from members of the media. But Horowitz found that investigators in 2020 “did not fully follow” other policies when they focused their attention on news media organizations publishing classified information.
According to the report, then-Attorney General William Barr authorized the collection of journalists' communications data because the policy required senior approval to investigate journalists, but prosecutors working on the cases did not follow other procedures. Horowitz found that in all of the investigations, the Justice Department's New Media Review Committee – a group of officials within the department tasked with reviewing such investigative steps – was not established. The report also said that prosecutors failed in at least one instance to obtain required sign-off from the intelligence community before collecting communications data.
Unsealed court records shown Demand were created in the final weeks of Trump's first term. Barr did not agree to be interviewed for the inspector general's report. The former head of the Justice Department's National Security Division said Inspector General Barr and his predecessor “made it clear that investigating the leaks is a priority for the department.”
“In our judgment, the Department's deviation from its requirements indicates, on the one hand, the respect expressed in Department policy for the roles of the news media in American democracy and, on the other hand, the Department's commitment to those while complying with the limitations and requirements that were intended to protect that very role,” Horowitz wrote.
Following revelations that journalists were the subject of a Trump-era Justice Department investigation, Garland was appointed to the Justice Department. changed Department policies governing news media organizations.