Trump's DOJ spied on Congressional Democrats

[pbrower2a]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department under former President Donald Trump seized data from the accounts of at least two members of the House Intelligence Committee in 2018 as part of an aggressive crackdown on leaks related to the Russia investigation and other national security matters, according to a committee official and two people familiar with the investigation.
Prosecutors from Trump’s Justice Department subpoenaed Apple for the data, according to the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss the secret seizures. The revelations were first reported by The New York Times.
The records of at least twelve people connected to the intelligence panel were eventually seized, including Chairman Adam Schiff, who was then the top Democrat on the committee. California Rep. Eric Swalwell was the second member, according to spokeswoman Natalie Edelstein.

The records of aides and family members were also shared, including one who was a minor, according to the committee official. Apple informed the committee last month that their records had been shared, but did not give extensive detail. The committee is aware, though, that metadata from the accounts was turned over, the official said.

While the Justice Department routinely conducts investigation into leaks, including of classified information, opening such an investigation into members of Congress is extraordinarily rare. The Trump administration’s attempt to secretly gain access to data of individual members of Congress and others related to the panel came as the president was fuming over investigations — in Congress and by then-special counsel Robert Mueller — into his campaign’s ties to Russia. Trump called the probes a “witch hunt” and regularly criticized Schiff and other Democrats on Twitter.


“The news about the politicization of the Trump Administration Justice Department is harrowing,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in a statement. “These actions appear to be yet another egregious assault on our democracy waged by the former president.”

Schiff, now the panel’s chair, confirmed in a statement Thursday evening that the Justice Department had informed the committee in May that the investigation was closed. Still, he said, “I believe more answers are needed, which is why I believe the Inspector General should investigate this and other cases that suggest the weaponization of law enforcement by a corrupt president.”

The Justice Department informed the intelligence panel in May that the matter had not transferred to any other entity or investigative body, the committee official said, and the department confirmed that again today.



The committee has continued to seek additional information, but the Justice Department 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.
The news follows revelations that the Justice Department had secretly seized phone records belonging to reporters at The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN as part of criminal leak investigations. Following an outcry from press freedom organizations, the Justice Department announced last week that it would cease the practice of going after journalists’ sourcing information.

https://apnews.com/article/government-and-politics-donald-trump-5b6f6bf0daf8bccf106a90d2ff52686c

For purposes of comment.

[pbrower2a]

[pbrower2a]

(CNN)The Department of Justice sent a broad request in February 2018 to Apple as part of its investigation that collected data on members of Congress, staffers and their families. The department demanded metadata on 73 phone numbers and 36 email addresses from Apple, the company said Friday evening.
Apple received the subpoena from the Justice Department on Feb. 6, 2018, but it contained no information about who the investigation was targeting or why, the company said. Apple also said determining who the targeted accounts belonged to would have required extensive research.

A person familiar with the request said the subpoena requested information on the targeted accounts beginning with the inception of the accounts through the day of the subpoena.

Apple said it limited the information it provided to metadata and account subscriber information and did not provide any content such as emails or pictures. While Apple says it would have normally informed customers, a nondisclosure order prevented it from doing so in this case, the company said.

The nondisclosure order was extended three times, each time for a year, Apple said. When it was not extended for a fourth time, Apple said it informed the affected customers on May 5, 2021.


"In this case, the subpoena, which was issued by a federal grand jury and included a nondisclosure order signed by a federal magistrate judge, provided no information on the nature of the investigation and it would have been virtually impossible for Apple to understand the intent of the desired information without digging through users' accounts," Apple said in the statement. "Consistent with the request, Apple limited the information it provided to account subscriber information and did not provide any content such as emails or pictures."

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/11/politics/justice-department-apple-congress-leak-investigation/index.html

[pbrower2a]

Is there any question that this sort of behavior rips at freedom of the press, a cornerstone of liberal democracy as understood from the time of at least the establishment of the Constitution of the United States?

I also posted this at Political Wire:

Donald Trump has done much to endanger American democracy. Control of journalism is one of the hallmarks of all dictatorships, and it may be that his failure to throttle the media is all that has kept us from having a second term of Donald Trump and a full-blown dictatorship.

Know well that the judiciary and the Executive Branch can have a warm relationship, usually because the media and both law enforcement and the judicial system usually work hand in glove on criminal cases. Arrests, prosecutions, and convictions are news. But official misconduct is itself news, and any attempt by top political figures to stifle investigation of such is itself despicable.

Laurence Britt has his fourteen warning signs of fascism. Obviously Trump is not a Commie or part of some traditional despotism such as Saudi Arabia, so what does that leave? The warning sign that I thought least applicable was "control of the mass media". I now have no question.

[pbrower2a]

I can finally check off "Controlled mass media", at the least for the attempt.

[Anthony '58]

If Donald Trump was a "fascist," then Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib would have been clapped in Alderson - if you know what that is.

These childish, boorish ad hominem attacks must stop. Do the libs like it when the conservatives call them communists?

Otherwise, to paraphrase something that John Cloghessy once said on WFAN, we're staring down the barrel of a Second Civil War.

[David Horn]

(07-27-2021, 09:06 AM)Anthony Wrote: If Donald Trump was a "fascist," then Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib would have been clapped in Alderson - if you know what that is.

These childish, boorish ad hominem attacks must stop.  Do the libs like it when the conservatives call them communists?

Otherwise, to paraphrase something that John Cloghessy once said on WFAN, we're staring down the barrel of a Second Civil War.

Really?  The RW Republicans have been in the slander game for the last 40 decades.  A little turn-about is fully warranted. The Left has tried turning its cheek too many times already.  They also have the benefit of being more right than wrong.

[Anthony '58]

4 decades? Would you care to try for 7?

And it's still working for them - like a charm.

[David Horn]

(07-27-2021, 09:19 AM)Anthony Wrote: 4 decades?  Would you care to try for 7?

And it's still working for them - like a charm.

Prior to Lee Atwatrer, the GOP was similar to the Democrats in demeanor.  After all, Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway system and Nixon createt the EPA.  Once the slander started, it all got worse -- a lot worse.  And I would disagree on how effective it is today.  It holds sway where it does, but the numbers tell us it's declining with the aging Silents, Boomers and oldest of the Xers.

[pbrower2a]

(07-27-2021, 09:19 AM)Anthony Wrote: 4 decades?  Would you care to try for 7?

And it's still working for them - like a charm.

Four decades -- the neoliberal era of the Skowronek cycle that begins with Reagan and ends with Trump. Republicans have become even more ruthless and reckless in rhetoric. 

It can play out, and when it does we are in a very different world. It is now hard to predict how things will be when the invective comes to an end.. well, that is a 1T. The pattern has typically been that nobody sees while it happens but seems all too obvious after the fact. Maybe American politics will again be more collegial, more interested in service than in "winning" some political skirmishes so that the other side is defeated once and forever.