Trump DOJ improperly subpoenaed phone records of reporters, lawmakers, staff

The Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General (IG) reported Tuesday that Donald Trump’s DOJ secretly and improperly reviewed the phone records of eight reporters from three publications, two members of Congress and 43 Congressional staffers between 2017 and 2020.

In a classic one-and-done, national news media reported yesterday that the Department of Justice under Donald Trump “improperly subpoenaed lawmakers, staff during leak investigations: IG.”

Note the missing information: reporters. Note, too, an insider abbreviation: IG (for Inspector General). Insider speak disguises the lawless action and, in its own way, “obeys in advance” (Timothy Snyder) by burying the information about news media.

The conclusion related to DOJ behavior towards journalists is, in my view, damning:

[The] Department complied with some but not all of the then applicable provisions of the News Media Policy in the compulsory process it issued. Specifically, as detailed above, we found that the Department failed to convene the News Media Review Committee to consider the authorization requests in the three investigations; the Department did not obtain the required DNI certification in one investigation and we were unable to determine whether the Department provided the DNI certification it obtained in another investigation to the Attorney General for his consideration; and the Department did not obtain the Attorney General’s express authorization for the NDOs in any of the three investigations.

Given the important interests at stake, we were troubled that these failures occurred, particularly given that only a few years had elapsed since the Department substantially overhauled its News Media Policy in 2014 and 2015 following serious criticisms concerning the Department’s efforts to obtain communications records of members of the news media. In our judgment, the Department’s deviation from its own requirements indicates a troubling disparity between, on the one hand, the regard expressed in Department policy for the role of the news media in American democracy and, on the other hand, the Department’s commitment to complying with the limits and requirements that it intended to safeguard that very role (emphasis added).

The conclusion about Congressional information requests, which was the focus of most national news stories, pales in comparison:

Based on our review of its use of compulsory process in the
matters we reviewed in this chapter, we believe the Department should continue to carefully assess its policies to ensure that appropriate constitutional and prudential questions are considered before it issues compulsory process for records of Members of Congress and congressional staffers or seeks NDOs [non-disclosure orders] related to them.

It is unlikely that Trump’s second administration will come this close to abiding by rules and regulations, whether internal or external.

Note three: no major story linked to the report or the news release which served as the foundation for their reporting.

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