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Former White House attorney Donald McGahn appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2018 on Capitol Hill. Washington Post via Getty Images Hide caption
Toggle caption The Washington Post via Getty Images
Former White House attorney Donald McGahn appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2018 on Capitol Hill.
The Washington Post via Getty Images
The Department of Justice secretly summoned Apple in February 2018 to obtain account information for then-White House counsel Don McGahn, as well as his wife, and obtained a gag order preventing the company from telling them about it, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The person, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said it was unclear what the Justice Department was investigating or whether prosecutors actually obtained any of McGahn’s account information.
Apple notified McGahns of the subpoena last month after the gag order expired. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Ministry of Justice declined to comment.
It is very unusual for the Department of Justice to subpoena the records of the current White House attorney. News of the subpoena, first reported by The New York Times, comes days after it emerged that the Trump-era Department of Justice had also subpoenaed Apple to obtain communications metadata of at least two Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee, as well as current and former employees and family members as part from achieving leakage.
These seizures are now under review by the Inspector General of the Ministry of Justice. The two lawmakers whose statements were hacked are Representatives Adam Schiff, the committee’s top Democrat, and Eric Swalwell.
Both Schiff and Swalwell were outspoken critics of former President Donald Trump, and both served as impeachment managers for the former president during his two Senate impeachment trials. Schiff presided as director during the first Trump impeachment trial in 2020; Swalwell during his second impeachment trial earlier this year.
McGahn left the White House in late 2018, but during his time in the attorney’s office he was a central figure in Trump’s orbit and in former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
While the Mueller investigation ended in 2019, McGahn was called earlier this month to testify before the Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee after a protracted two-year legal battle. The testimony from that appearance was made public last week, revealing the degree to which McGahn felt he was under pressure from Trump for wrongdoing.
McGahn told the committee he was particularly concerned about Trump’s repeated requests to facilitate the firing of Mueller, who has been tasked with investigating possible ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.
Top congressional Democrats are now calling on former attorneys general William Barr and Jeff Sessions to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the subpoenas — calls that are sure to get louder after McGahn’s revelations.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DNY, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin said: “The revelation that Trump’s Department of Justice has secretly recalled metadata of members of the House Intelligence Committee, their staff, and their families, including a minor, is shocking.” . D-the third, in a statement on Friday. “This is a grave abuse of authority and an assault on the separation of powers,” he added.
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