AG vows strict standards for lawmakers’ records
Justice Dept. division chief resigns amid furor
WASHINGTON – Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department is working on “surfacing potentially problematic matters” tied to the agency’s aggressive leak investigations under the Trump administration, adding that “important questions ... must be resolved” regarding efforts to obtain phone records of lawmakers and their staff.
“As I stated during my confirmation hearing, political or other improper considerations must play no role in any investigative or prosecutorial decisions. These principles that have long been held as sacrosanct by the DOJ career workforce will be vigorously guarded on my watch, and any failure to live up to them will be met with strict accountability,” Garland said in a statement Monday.
Meanwhile, the chief of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, John Demers, is departing amid a furor over phone record disclosures, a Justice official said Monday. The resignation of Demers comes a day after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called for Demers to testify about the DOJ action targeting the lawmakers.
A Justice official said Demers’ had intended to leave the department before the end of June after remaining at his post following the Trump administration.
Justice’s independent watchdog has launched a broad investigation into whether the Trump administration and its two attorneys general improperly seized the communications records of the House Democratic lawmakers, their staff and journalists as part of an aggressive leak investigation in 2018.
Inspector General Michael Horowitz said last week his office will investigate whether the Justice Department complied with its own policies and procedures when it subpoenaed the communications data of Democratic lawmakers, their associates, as well as the phone records of reporters from The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN.
While the inspector general’s investigation proceeds, Garland said Monday he had instructed Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco to “evaluate and strengthen the department’s existing policies and procedures for obtaining records of the Legislative branch.”
“Consistent with our commitment to the rule of law, we must ensure that full weight is accorded to separation-ofpowers concerns moving forward,” Garland said.
Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell – two of former President Donald Trump’s most outspoken critics in Congress – confirmed last week that Trump-era Justice Department officials secretly seized their Apple phone data and that of 10 or so other House Intelligence Committee members, their aides and relatives, one of whom is a minor.
The revelations angered Democrats who have long accused the former president of using the Justice Department to go after his perceived political enemies. Democratic leaders promptly called for an investigation and demanded that former Attorneys General William Barr and Jeff Sessions testify about the seizure of phone records.
“The news about the politicization of the Trump administration Justice Department is harrowing,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. “These actions appear to be yet another egregious assault on our democracy waged by the former president.”
The federal grand jury subpoena, which Apple received in February 2018, appeared to have cast a wide net, seeking data on more than 100 phone numbers and email addresses to find out who talked to reporters.
Apple said the subpoena sought “customer or subscriber account information” tied to 73 phone numbers and 36 email addresses.