This is what going after leakers was always going to end up doing; Trump DOJ subpoenas records for House democrats

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Hunting Leaks, Trump Officials Focused on Democrats in Congress - The New York Times

WWW.NYTIMES.COM

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The Justice Department seized records from Apple for metadata of House Intelligence Committee members, their aides and family members.

Quote

WASHINGTON — As the Justice Department investigated who was behind leaks of classified information early in the Trump administration, it took a highly unusual step: Prosecutors subpoenaed Apple for data from the accounts of at least two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, aides and family members. One was a minor.

All told, the records of at least a dozen people tied to the committee were seized in 2017 and early 2018, including those of Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, then the panel’s top Democrat and now its chairman, according to committee officials and two other people briefed on the inquiry.

Prosecutors, under the beleaguered attorney general, Jeff Sessions, were hunting for the sources behind news media reports about contacts between Trump associates and Russia. Ultimately, the data and other evidence did not tie the committee to the leaks, and investigators debated whether they had hit a dead end and some even discussed closing the inquiry.

But William P. Barr revived languishing leak investigations after he became attorney general a year later. He moved a trusted prosecutor from New Jersey with little relevant experience to the main Justice Department to work on the Schiff-related case and about a half-dozen others, according to three people with knowledge of his work who did not want to be identified discussing federal investigations.

The zeal in the Trump administration’s efforts to hunt leakers led to the extraordinary step of subpoenaing communications metadata from members of Congress — a nearly unheard-of move outside of corruption investigations. While Justice Department leak investigations are routine, current and former congressional officials familiar with the inquiry said they could not recall an instance in which the records of lawmakers had been seized as part of one.

Moreover, just as it did in investigating news organizations, the Justice Department secured a gag order on Apple that expired this year, according to a person familiar with the inquiry, so lawmakers did not know they were being investigated until Apple informed them last month.

Prosecutors also eventually secured subpoenas for reporters’ records to try to identify their confidential sources, a move that department policy allows only after all other avenues of inquiry are exhausted.

The subpoenas remained secret until the Justice Department disclosed them in recent weeks to the news organizations — The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN — revelations that set off criticism that the government was intruding on press freedoms.

 

 

[Jason]

Thanks Obama!

[Ricofoley]

Fire Merrick Garland

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

4 minutes ago, Ricofoley said:

Fire Merrick Garland

 

Maybe The Turtle was right all along!

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

I'm sure garland is being called an institutionalist for not cleaning out all the trumpy assholes at doj but ...that should have been job #1 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

mmhmm

 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

15 hours ago, Ricofoley said:

Fire Merrick Garland

into the sun