Schiff calls for investigation after NYT report on seized data by Trump DOJ

  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
Gigi Sukin
·2 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said the Inspector General should investigate Donald Trump's "weaponization of law enforcement" after the New York Times reported the former president's administration subpoenaed Apple for data from the congressman's account.

Driving the news: At least a dozen people linked to the Intelligence Committee had records seized between 2017 and early 2018, including Schiff, who at the time was the panel's top Democrat and now serves as its chairman, The Times reported, citing people briefed on the inquiry.

Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free.

Why it matters: The revelation comes alongside recent disclosures that the Trump administration secretly seized the phone records of CNN, Washington Post and New York Times reporters.

  • House Speaker Nancy Pelosi echoed Schiff's call for an investigation.

  • "These actions appear to be yet another egregious assault on our democracy waged by the former president," she said in a statement.

The state of play: Justice Department prosecutors, under then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, were looking for the sources behind reports of contact between associates of former President Trump and Russia.

  • "Ultimately, the data and other evidence did not tie the committee to the leaks, and investigators debated whether they had hit a dead end and some even discussed closing the inquiry," The Times writes.

  • "The zeal in the Trump administration’s efforts to hunt leakers led to the extraordinary step of subpoenaing communications metadata from members of Congress — a nearly unheard-of move outside of corruption investigations," the newspaper adds.

  • Apple turned over metadata and account information, per the Times.

Of note: The DOJ obtained a gag order on Apple that expired earlier this year, a person familiar with the inquiry told the Times, so lawmakers were unaware of the investigation until the tech giant informed them in May.

What they're saying: "President Trump repeatedly and flagrantly demanded that the Department of Justice carry out his political will, and tried to use the Department as a cudgel against his political opponents and members of the media," Schiff wrote in a statement following the Times' Thursday night report.

  • "It is increasingly apparent that those demands did not fall on deaf ears. The politicization of the Department and the attacks on the rule of law are among the most dangerous assaults on our democracy carried out by the former President," he said.

  • "Though we were informed by the Department in May that this investigation is closed, I believe more answers are needed, which is why I believe the Inspector General should investigate this and other cases that suggest the weaponization of law enforcement by a corrupt president.”

  • The Justice Department declined to comment.

Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free.

Recommended Stories

  • The 44 Percent: Pride, critical race theory and Harriett Tubman $20 bill

    This goes out to Miami’s “progressive” reputation.

  • Vaccine donations come with 'no strings attached' -Biden

    "Half a billion vaccines will start to be shipped in August, as quickly as they roll off the manufacturing line," Biden said at a news conference before the G7 summit in Britain."The United States is providing these half billion doses, with no strings attached. No strings attached. Our vaccine donations don't include pressure for favours, or potential concessions. We're doing this to save lives."Biden vowed that America would be the arsenal of vaccines in the fight against global COVID-19. "Just as America was the arsenal of democracy during World War Two."

  • This week in golf (June 7-13): TV sked, tee times, info for PGA Tour and other tours

    Here's a look at what's happening on the PGA Tour and elsewhere this week, and how you can watch it.

  • Republicans rebel against a powerful anti-opioid tool

    Fatigue over America's long-running drug crisis and anti-science sentiment are fueling backlash against needle exchanges.

  • U.S. House panel approves $547 billion infrastructure boost

    A U.S. House committee early on Thursday voted 38 to 26 to authorize $547 billion in additional spending over five years on surface transportation, a plan that would mostly go toward fixing existing U.S. roads and bridges and increase funding for passenger rail and transit. The vote after more than 17 hours of debate came as the Senate Commerce Committee is set to unveil a compromise surface transportation bill as early as Thursday, sources said. The House bill adopts some proposals made by Democratic President Joe Biden as part of his broader $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan.

  • Small Minneapolis event eyes Klobuchar to help stop Line 3

    About 100 people gathered at a Minneapolis park Thursday before marching to Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s office to promote shutting down reconstruction of an aging oil pipeline in northern Minnesota. The half-hour program at Gold Medal Park included singing and speeches by activists insisting that Klobuchar pursue at least a delay on the final segment of the Enbridge Energy Line 3 project. One prominent opponent, Winona LaDuke, founder of the Indigenous-based environmental group Honor the Earth, mentioned Klobuchar by first name on several occasions and said the senator should demand a more thorough environmental impact study for the project. “You need to be the woman who stands up for the water, Amy," LaDuke said.

  • Fire the IRS Chief Who Doesn’t Care if the Rich Don’t Pay

    REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstWithin hours of ProPublica’s blockbuster report showing just how little America’s 25 wealthiest people pay in taxes, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig announced an investigation, which, of course, is what great journalism into a scandal is supposed to generate: a renewed commitment by senior government officials to fix an obvious scandal.But Rettig wasn’t looking into how broken the tax system is in favor of the wealthy, but rather about who leaked the documents proving that

  • Ex-Mossad director dismisses China threat, criticizing hardline U.S policy

    Just days after stepping down as director of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, Yossi Cohen criticized U.S. policy toward China and hinted it was too hardline.Why it matters: In a lecture on Monday, Cohen said he'd discussed China with many senior U.S. officials but always ended the conversations with more questions than answers. Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free.“If there is anybody here who knows what the U.S. wants from China, I would be happy to hea

  • Minnesota lawmakers agree on $100 million funding boost for colleges

    Minnesota lawmakers have reached a higher education funding deal that would increase support to public colleges and universities by nearly $100 million over the next two years, establish an automatic college acceptance program for state high school seniors and create new grants for students who were raised in foster care.State spending on higher education would total $3.5 billion over the next ...

  • Prince of Wales leads charge in climate battle as PM picks him to host G7 meeting

    The Prince of Wales will host a reception for world leaders and CEOs of some of the world’s largest companies at the G7 summit in Cornwall, accompanied by his son, the Duke of Cambridge. Prince Charles was personally asked by the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, to host the meeting focused on climate change, the Telegraph understands. On Thursday afternoon, he held a reception with nine business leaders at St James’s Palace ahead of the summit. The group were joined by John Kerry, the US special e

  • 'A fundamental issue of fairness': Paycheck Fairness Act bill to address gender pay gap blocked by Senate Republicans

    Women who work full time, year-round are paid, on average, about 82 cents for every dollar paid to men, a gap of $10,157 per year, advocates say.

  • Exclusive: Eli Lilly memo says firm did not make false statements to FDA

    A week before Eli Lilly disclosed to regulators that the U.S. Justice Department was investigating its New Jersey factory, the drugmaker told employees that its own inquiry, led by an outside law firm, found no evidence of wrongdoing there, according to a company memo reviewed by Reuters. On April 8, a group of employees filed an anonymous complaint internally alleging that an executive at its Branchburg, New Jersey, factory had altered documents required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. As Reuters reported last month, Lilly tapped the Washington D.C. law firm Covington & Burling LLP to investigate the alleged alterations, which the employees said were meant to downplay serious quality control problems at the plant producing the drugmaker's COVID-19 antibody treatment.

  • Deputies who fatally shot man in Minneapolis were undercover

    The two sheriff's deputies who shot and killed a Black man during an arrest attempt by a U.S. Marshals Service task force in Minneapolis were working undercover at the time so their names will not be released, state investigators said Wednesday. Winston Boogie Smith Jr., 32, of St. Paul, was killed last Thursday as authorities were trying to arrest him on a weapons violation in Minneapolis' Uptown neighborhood. The U.S. Marshals Service said he was wanted for allegedly being a felon in possession of a firearm and that Smith, who was in a parked vehicle, didn’t comply and “produced a handgun resulting in task force members firing upon the subject.”

  • Most Democrats want to permanently send $300 monthly checks to families, but some centrist senators may push big cuts in Biden's infrastructure plan

    The Biden stimulus benefit has deep Democratic support, but Senate moderates could slash the expanded child tax credit. Manchin hasn't weighed in.

  • Biden’s infrastructure plan would create many jobs, but labor shortages may mean few workers will take them

    President Joe Biden's infrastructure plan would create plenty of jobs. But there aren't enough skilled workers to take them.

  • Third member of U.S. FDA advisory panel resigns over Alzheimer's drug approval

    A third member of a panel of outside advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has resigned in protest over the agency's decision to approve Biogen Inc's Alzheimer's disease treatment despite the committee's recommendation against doing so. Aaron Kesselheim, a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School who had served on the FDA’s advisory committee for nervous system drugs since 2015, told Reuters on Thursday he was stepping down from the panel. "My rationale was that the FDA needs to re-evaluate how it solicits and uses the advisory committees ... because I didn’t think that the firm recommendations from the committee in this case ... were appropriately integrated into the decision-making process," Kesselheim said in an email.

  • Whoopi Goldberg Joins Cast of Animated Apple Original Film ‘Luck’

    Whoopi Goldberg has joined the voice cast of “Luck,” Apple announced Thursday in a press release. Goldberg will voice “The Captain,” the head of security for the Land of Good Luck, in the animated feature film. She joins previously announced cast member Jane Fonda in the collaboration between Apple Original Films and Skydance Animation. Peggy Holmes (“Secret of the Wings”) is directing the film written by Kiel Murray (“Cars”). “Luck” follows a particularly unlucky heroine as she discovers the Wo

  • Former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton discusses the rise in violent crime across the U.S. in 2020

    Bill Bratton, Teneo Risk Executive Chairman, Former Police Commissioner of NYC & Boston LAPD. Chief, and Co-author with Peter Knobler of ‘The Profession’, joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss Issues around crime and quality of life in major cities.

  • Republicans are out to create the rigged voting system they claim to be victims of

    A spate of new laws aims to suppress voters – especially Black voters – and seemingly prevent free and fair elections Voting rights activists protest new voting restrictions in Austin, Texas. Photograph: Mikala Compton/Reuters “Our entire democracy is now at risk.” That was the note of alarm sounded last week by a group of prominent intellectuals on both the left and the right. The source of their concern are the Republican efforts, underway across the nation, to operationalize the “big lie”: th

  • Donald Trump says he trusts Vladimir Putin more than US intelligence and asks Joe Biden to send his 'warmest regards'

    Donald Trump has told Joe Biden to give his “warmest regards” to Vladimir Putin when the two leaders meet next week – and said it “should be obvious” that US intelligence on Russian election meddling ought not to be trusted. In a statement from his “Save America” campaign on Thursday night, the former US president attacked his successor and suggested that he did not trust American intelligence on Russia's interference in the 2016 election. In 2018 Mr Trump was asked after meeting Mr Putin in Hel