In a stunning revelation, officials in the Justice Department asked tech companies to turn over the private communications of members of Congress and their staff, despite having no legal warrant to ask for the information.
The spy operation targeted the United States senator and staffers looking into the Justice Department's involvement in a debunked “Russian dossier” that made false claims about then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Now, U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) is asking the chief executive officers of Alphabet (formerly known as Google,) Apple, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, and Attorney General Garland to turn over information on the Justice Department's illicit spy operation.
“On October 19, 2023, Google notified the former Chief Investigative Counsel to then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley that the Justice Department had subpoenaed Google in 2017 for the staffer's personal phone records and emails during the period when Senator Grassley was conducting vigorous oversight of the Department's handling of the so-called Steele dossier,” the Judiciary Committee announced in a statement.
“Google's notification to this staffer revealed the Justice Department likely also sought the personal records and communications of other congressional staffers—both Republicans and Democrats—who engaged in oversight of the Department during the same period,” the Committee adds.
The committee is now “investigating whether the Justice Department asked other email or telecommunications providers for similar information on Members of Congress and congressional staff.”
“The Justice Department's efforts to obtain the private communications of congressional staffers, including staffers conducting oversight of the Department, is wholly unacceptable and offends fundamental separation of powers principles as well as Congress's constitutional authority to conduct oversight of the Department,” Jordan's letter reads.
“This revelation also follows news that the Department issued subpoenas to obtain the private emails and records of congressional staffers on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence who were conducting oversight of the Justice Department's Crossfire Hurricane investigation,” Jordan adds.
“These revelations strongly suggest that the Justice Department weaponized its law-enforcement authority to spy on the entities seeking to hold it accountable,” Jordan notes.
Jordan asks the CEOs to:
(P)lease provide the following documents and information from January 1, 2016, to the present:
1. All documents and communications between or among Apple employees referring or relating to subpoenas or requests issued by the Department of Justice to Apple for personal or official records or communications of Members of Congress or congressional staff;
2. All documents and communications between or among Apple employees and Justice Department employees referring or relating to subpoenas or requests issued by the Department of Justice to Apple for personal or official records or communications of Members of Congress or congressional staff;
3. All material or information that Apple provided to the Justice Department in response to the Department's subpoenas or requests for personal or official records and communications of Members of Congress or congressional staff; and
4. All subpoenas or requests sent by the Justice Department to Apple for personal or official records and communications of Members of Congress or congressional staff.”
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