WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Senate Democratic leaders are demanding that Trump-era Attorneys General Bill Barr and Jeff Sessions testify about the secret seizure of data from House Democrats in 2018, calling it \u201cshocking\u201d and a \u201cgross abuse of power.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Illinois. Sen. Dick Durbin said in a statement Friday that Barr and Sessions \u201cmust testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee\u201d and are subject to a subpoena if they refuse.<\/p>\n
The demands came after Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell were notified that the Justice Department under former President Donald Trump had seized their metadata from Apple three years ago as part of an aggressive crackdown on leaks related to the Russia investigation and other national security matters. That\u2019s according to three people familiar with the seizures.<\/p>\n
Schiff and Swalwell were serving on the House intelligence committee at the time \u2014 Schiff now is the chairman.<\/p>\n
While the Justice Department routinely conducts investigations of leaked information, including classified intelligence, opening such an investigation into members of Congress is extraordinarily rare. The disclosures reveal one branch of the government using its powers of investigation and prosecution to spy on another.<\/p>\n
Schiff said the seizures suggest \u201cthe weaponization of law enforcement by a corrupt president.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prosecutors from Trump\u2019s Justice Department subpoenaed Apple for the data, said a committee official and two other people with inside knowledge. The records of at least 12 people connected to the intelligence panel were eventually shared by the company.<\/p>\n
The committee official and the two others with knowledge of the data seizures were granted anonymity to discuss them.<\/p>\n
Apple informed the committee last month that the records had been shared and that the investigation had been closed, but did not give extensive detail. Also seized were the records of aides, former aides and family members, one of them a minor, according to the committee official.<\/p>\n
The Justice Department obtained metadata \u2014 probably records of calls, texts and locations \u2014 but not other content from the devices, like photos, messages or emails, according to one of the people. Another said that Apple complied with the subpoena, providing the information to the Justice Department, and did not immediately notify the members of Congress or the committee about the disclosure.<\/p>\n
The secret seizures were first reported by The New York Times.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration\u2019s attempt to secretly gain access to the data came as the president was fuming publicly and privately over investigations \u2014 in Congress and by then-special counsel Robert Mueller \u2014 into his campaign\u2019s ties to Russia.<\/p>\n
Trump called the probes a \u201cwitch hunt,\u201d regularly criticized Democrats and Mueller on Twitter and repeatedly dismissed as \u201cfake news\u201d leaks he found harmful to his agenda. As the investigations swirled around him, he demanded loyalty from a Justice Department he often regarded as his personal law firm.<\/p>\n
Schiff and Swalwell were two of the most visible Democrats on the committee, then led by Republicans, during the Russia probe. Both California lawmakers made frequent appearances on cable news. Trump watched those channels closely, if not obsessively, and seethed over the coverage.<\/p>\n
Schiff, in a statement late Thursday, called for an investigation by the Justice Department\u2019s inspector general on the seizures.<\/p>\n
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement that the data seizures \u201cappear to be yet another egregious assault on our democracy\u201d waged by the former president.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe news about the politicization of the Trump Administration Justice Department is harrowing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The committee official said the panel has continued to seek additional information, but the Justice Department has not been forthcoming on questions such as whether the investigation was properly predicated and whether it only focused on Democrats.<\/p>\n
It is unclear why Trump\u2019s Justice Department would have targeted a minor as part of the probe. Swalwell, confirming that he was told his records were seized, told CNN on Thursday night that he was aware a minor was involved and believed that person was \u201ctargeted punitively and not for any reason in law.\u201d<\/p>\n
On CNN Friday, Swalwell said he \u201cwould not be surprised\u201d if the department had gone after other members as well. He said an internal Justice Department investigation could find that out. The Senate Intelligence Committee was not similarly targeted, according to a fourth person who was aware of the probe and granted anonymity to discuss it.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no indication that the Justice Department used the records to prosecute anyone. After some of the information was declassified and made public during the later years of the Trump administration, some of the prosecutors were concerned that even if they could bring a leak case, trying it would be difficult and a conviction would be unlikely, one of the people said.<\/p>\n
Federal agents questioned at least one former committee staff member in 2020, the person said, and ultimately, prosecutors weren\u2019t able to substantiate a case.<\/p>\n
The news follows revelations that the Justice Department had secretly\u00a0seized phone records belonging to reporters\u00a0at The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN as part of criminal leak investigations. Following an outcry from press freedom organizations, the\u00a0Justice Department announced last week\u00a0that it would cease the practice of going after journalists\u2019 sourcing information.<\/p>\n
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Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.<\/p>\n