Trump Justice Department Sought Democratic Lawmakers' Records From Apple
June 11 2021 - 12:54AM
Dow Jones News
By Siobhan Hughes and Sadie Gurman
WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department during the Trump
administration sought records from Apple Inc. relating to
communications by House Intelligence Committee members as well as
some of their aides and family members, a committee official
said.
Apple in May notified individuals associated with the committee
that the Justice Department had issued grand-jury subpoenas for
their information in February 2018, the official said.
The committee immediately contacted the Justice Department for
clarification and additional information, the official said, adding
that the department informed the committee last month that the
matter had been closed.
In 2018, Trump administration officials had complained about
leaks to the media regarding alleged ties between Russia and the
Trump presidential campaign.
Apple didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee
Chairman Adam Schiff, both California Democrats, called for an
investigation into the Justice Department's pursuit of the
communications data, first reported by the New York Times. It
reported that the records of at least a dozen people connected to
the panel in 2017 and early 2018, including Mr. Schiff's, were
seized in the probe.
At the time of the subpoenas, then-President Donald Trump and
officials in his administration, including Attorney General Jeff
Sessions, were trying to locate the source of leaks about contacts
between Russia and figures in Mr. Trump's 2016 election campaign.
Mr. Trump's second attorney general, William Barr, renewed the leak
investigations after taking office in 2019, directing a federal
prosecutor from New Jersey to work on about a half-dozen cases,
according to a person familiar with the matter.
Mr. Sessions, who had recused himself from the Russia
investigation, declined to comment. Mr. Barr also declined to
discuss any subpoenas of lawmakers' communications records.
Mr. Schiff, who was the ranking member of the House Intelligence
Committee in 2018 and became chairman in 2019, told CNN that the
Justice Department's actions in the matter should be the subject of
an internal Justice Department investigation.
"President Trump repeatedly and flagrantly demanded that the
Department of Justice carry out his political will, and tried to
use the Department as a cudgel against his political opponents and
members of the media," Mr. Schiff said in a statement. "It is
increasingly apparent that those demands did not fall on deaf
ears."
Mrs. Pelosi endorsed the call for an investigation into what she
referred to as "this situation and other acts of the weaponization
of law enforcement by the former president."
Thursday's reports follow earlier revelations that the Justice
Department under Mr. Barr subpoenaed the records of reporters at
several news organizations including the Washington Post, the New
York Times and CNN.
The Justice Department, which has said it would no longer seek
records of reporters' contacts when investigating government leaks
of sensitive information, declined to comment.
The House Intelligence Committee has continued to seek
additional information from the Justice Department, the official
said, adding that "DOJ has not been forthcoming in a timely manner,
including on questions such as whether the investigation was
properly predicated and whether it only targeted Democrats."
Write to Siobhan Hughes at siobhan.hughes@wsj.com and Sadie
Gurman at sadie.gurman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 11, 2021 00:45 ET (04:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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