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Reuters – Leading Senate Democrats on Friday asked two former U.S. attorneys general to testify about reported subpoenas of notes by former Justice Department members of Congress Donald Trump, while a White House officials described the actions as “surprising.”
The Trump Department of Justice has subpoenaed Apple Inc. for data from the accounts of at least two Democrats on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee in an attempt to figure out who was behind the leak of classified information, the New York Times on Thursday.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Dick Durbin said Trump-era attorneys Bill Barr and Jeff Session should be subpoenaed if necessary to force them to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the secret data snatching, which it was called an excessive abuse of power.
Former Attorney General Barr and Sessions and other officials involved must testify on the oath of the Senate Judiciary Committee. If they refuse, they are subject to subpoenaed and forced to testify under oath, ”Schumer and Durbin said in a statement.
They added that the Judiciary Committee, chaired by Durbin, would “diligently investigate this abuse of power,” and that the Department of Justice’s inspector general should also investigate. The Justice Department’s internal watchdog will review the efforts, a department official said Friday.
Kate Bedingfield, director of communications at the White House, said the report describes the kind of abuse of power in the former administration that pushed Democratic President Joe Biden to run against Republican Trump.
“Obviously, the reports of attorney general behavior under Donald Trump are shocking,” he told CNN.
Biden made a point of marking the independence of the Department of Justice, saying it serves the people, not the president.
Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said he was being spied on.
In May, Apple informed me that my records were among those sought and returned to the Trump administration as part of a political investigation into its suspected enemies, ”Swalwell said in a statement.
The notes of the committee chairman, Representative Adam Schiff, were also searched, according to the Times. Schiff said in a statement Thursday that the Justice Department told the committee last month that the investigation was closed. He said the inspector general of the Department of Justice should investigate.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Jan Wolfe; Editing by Lisa Lambert and Jonathan Oatis)
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