A House Panel Will Investigate Trump-Era Surveillance By The Department Of Justice

The Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee will open an investigation into the Trump-era Department of Justice's seizure of metadata from devices belonging to members of Congress, journalists and the-then White House counsel.

In recent weeks, gag orders have been lifted, revealing the department's subpoenas.

The Justice Department secretly subpoenaed Apple in February 2018 for account information of then-White House counsel Don McGahn, as well as his wife, and secured a gag order barring the company from telling them about it, a person familiar with the matter told NPR's Ryan Lucas.

That news came days after it emerged that the Trump-era Justice Department had also subpoenaed Apple for communications metadata of at least two Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee, as well as current and former staff and family members, as part of a leak investigation.

"Recent reports suggest that, during the Trump Administration, the Department of Justice used criminal investigations as a pretext to spy on President Trump's perceived political enemies," House Judiciary Chair Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said in a statement announcing the committee inquiry. "It remains possible that these cases—which now include Members of Congress, members of the press, and President Trump's own White House Counsel—are isolated incidents. Even if these reports are completely unrelated, they raise serious constitutional and separation of power concerns."

This House effort is not unexpected. Democratic Senate leaders have also called for a congressional investigation into the DOJ's practices.

The department's inspector general has announced an investigation of the seizures.

"There are important questions that must be resolved in connection with an effort by the department to obtain records related to Members of Congress and Congressional staff," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Monday. He added of the IG's inquiry: "If at any time as the investigation proceeds action related to the matter in question is warranted, I will not hesitate to move swiftly."

Garland added that "while that review is pending, he has asked Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco "to evaluate and strengthen the department's existing policies and procedures for obtaining records of the Legislative branch."

Garland met Monday with leaders from The New York Times, CNN and The Washington Post following the disclosure that the department had, during the Trump administration, secretly seized phone records for reporters at those outlets.

"As previously announced, the department will no longer use compulsory process to obtain reporters' source information when they are doing their jobs," the DOJ said in a readout of the meeting. "The group had a productive conversation about the need for new rules implementing the policy change." [Copyright 2021 NPR]