US Congress to Investigate Reasons Trump Seized Data from Members of Congress

Democratic leaders in the US Congress on Sunday vowed to investigate the Justice Department’s seizure of metadata of progressive members of Congress during the government of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021).

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have announced they will try to get answers from those who were in charge of the Justice Department under Trump, Jeff Sessions and William Barr.

“Under President Trump, the Justice Department broke the rules in many ways“Pelosi said in an interview with the channel CNN.

Pelosi was referring to the revelation in various media that Trump’s Justice Department demanded and seized metadata from progressive representatives in Congress at the Apple Company, in order to investigate press leaks regarding Russia.

The Congressional investigation will run alongside another internal investigation that was opened by the Inspector General of the US Department of Justice., Michael Horowitz, to determine whether this agency – which must act independently of the White House – was carried away by partisan considerations.

The seizure of metadata affected the chairman of the Lower House Intelligence Committee, Democrat Adam Schiff; to member of the same party Eric Swalwell and relatives of lawmakers, including a minor.

In addition, as reported this Sunday the newspaper The New York Times, In February 2018, the Justice Department asked Apple to provide details of the accounts of then White House attorney Don McGahn., and his wife.

It is unclear why the Justice Department was looking for data from McGahn, who was unaware of the case until Apple informed them last month because the government had blocked the company. to disclose these orders to the White House lawyer. .

It was on the same date, February 2018, when The Department of Justice, then under Jeff Sessions, requested metadata from Democratic members of Congress from Apple through a secret order, which was renewed three times until it expired in 2021..

The Trump administration’s goal was to investigate the source of the abundant media leaks of the then president’s environmental contact with the Kremlin.

According to The New York Times, the mechanism used by the Trump administration to investigate the leaks has no known precedent affecting members of Congress.

As part of the same investigation, the Department headed by Sessions also requested information from journalists in an attempt to find their sources, as reported recently. CNN, The New York Times Yes The Washington Post.

The Lower House Intelligence Committee, chaired by Schiff, was one of those investigating Trump’s alleged ties to the Kremlin and later his contacts with Ukraine, which led to the first trial in dismissal against him.

With information from the EFE

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