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The Trump-era Justice Department has requested data from Apple, Google and Microsoft on its rivals. Representative Eric Swalwell, whose data was requested, said Trump acted as the “most despicable dictators”. Here’s how each company responded to legal requests. See more stories on the Insider Company Page.
During President Donald Trump’s years in the White House, the Justice Department requested information from tech companies about its Democratic rivals in Congress and members of the press.
Representative Eric Swalwell, whose data had been requested, said in a statement Friday, “Like many of the world’s most despicable dictators, former President Trump has shown a total disregard for our democracy and the rule of law.”
Some of the largest tech companies in the world, including Google, Apple, and Microsoft, have received subpoenas or other requests for records for information held by accounts belonging to the press, members of Congress, their staff members, or their families. .
Here’s how each company reacted to these legal requests:
Apple
According to Zack Whittaker of TechCrunch, an Apple spokesperson on Friday said the company received a subpoena from the jury for 73 phone numbers and 36 email addresses. Apple delivered “subscriber information to the account and did not provide any content such as emails or images”.
The company handed over metadata related to Swalwell and Rep. Adam Schiff, according to statements by both politicians, who were among Trump’s political opponents.
Apple told CNBC on Friday that the grand jury subpoena included a gag order, preventing Apple from informing customers of the requests. The requests did not include information about the investigation, CNBC reported.
Swalwell said he was briefed by Apple last month.
“In May, I was informed by Apple that my documents were among those sought and handed over to the Trump administration as part of a politically motivated investigation into its alleged enemies,” he said Friday.
The Trump administration’s DOJ searched Google’s email logs of four New York Times reporters. That request also came with a gag order, according to The Times. The newspaper reported that “no documents were obtained”.
Press Secretary Jen Psaki in a June 5 statement said the White House had not been notified of the gag order.
“While the White House does not intervene in criminal investigations, issuing subpoenas for reporters’ records in leaks investigation is inconsistent with the President’s political direction at the Department and the Department of Justice has reconfirmed that it will used in the future., “she said.
The newspaper’s lawyers have filed a request to open Trump-era DOJ documents that precede the data requests, the Times reported this week.
“These orders represent an extraordinary challenge to press freedom, undermining the ability of the press to report truthful information of vital importance to the public,” the court document said.
Microsoft
Microsoft received a subpoena for a Congressional staff member’s personal email account in 2017, according to multiple reports. Reports did not identify the staff.
In a statement sent to the Daily Mail, a Microsoft spokesperson said the company believes that “customers have a constitutional right to know when the government requests their email or documents and we have the right to tell them.”
The spokesperson added: “In this case, we were prevented from informing the customer for more than two years due to a gag order. As soon as the gag order expired, we informed the customer who told us to be a congressional staff member. “
Insiders reached out to Apple, Google, and Microsoft for more information.
Schiff on Friday demanded an investigation into the Trump DOJ era from the independent inspector general, saying it would be “just the beginning”.
“We need a full account of Trump’s Justice Department abuse of power against Congress and the press,” Schiff said on Twitter Friday.
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